Do you believe that the author has some privileged position w/r/t defining the meaning of a story for everyone else? I see no reason to believe that. As far as I'm concerned, no story has any universal, objective meaning. Meaning comes from the interaction of the story's contents and the reader's mind / beliefs / knowledge / biases, etc.
The author can always say what he/she intended the story to mean, but that really has no bearing on what any individual reader takes from the story.
The author can always say what he/she intended the story to mean, but that really has no bearing on what any individual reader takes from the story.