I've learned a lot over the quarter on antebellum American Literature.

1. In particular, I will probably read more pre-1860 literature. I usually read post-1970 American literature, usually from the last decade or so. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the world of earlier literature, both regarding America and written in America.

As we reflect on this past quarters journals I have noticed one of many things that will stick with me in the future.

1.To increase your understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of literature in general and early American Literature in particular

1.To increase your understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of literature in general and early American Literature in particular;

These three learning outcomes are most likely to stick with me moving forward to future courses and in other aspects of my life:
1. Develop awareness of the implications of race and/or culture when looking at moral problems and societal conflicts between pre-Colombian and antebellum eras in American as projected through early American Literature.

The writers of the past week (Melville, Davis, and Whitman) have all been thoroughly 'aesthetic' writers. I think that most people would consider them, and perhaps the writers of the past two or three weeks, the first authors of real literature that we have read in this course. I think that the story Bartleby, THe Scrivener, didn't necessarily have any underlying message that the Melville intended to convey to the audience. It is literature for entertainment, and that is OK. Davis' writing has a more definite purpose.

While reading all the work of these different writers there is many different types of work that can be interpreted in all different ways. While reading the work of Melville, Davis, and Whitman, they provide many ways for their work to be interpreted due to the way they express their didactic through their writing, whereas during the readings of the earlier writers like Bradstreet and Rowlandson, they are very direct and blunt but their messages and ideas expressed and because of this, there is really only one way for their writing to be interpreted.

Throughout the fictional writing of Melville, Davis, and Whitman, the reader is able to interpret the underlying message in their stories, anecdotes, or personal encounters how he or she so wishes. Fiction opens up the reader's mind to different ways of looking at the author's didacticism, rather than say with Rowlandson or Bradstreet's work , in which their rigid, direct didactic style is bold and forward, making it difficult for the reader to interpret the message in multiple ways.

The three writers Melville, Davis and Whitman that we saw in this week’s reading all expressed themselves in a sort of storytelling way! This differed from our readings previously in that they would directly state their ideals where these three writers put a story to represent their thoughts, and beliefs. We can see in Bradstreet’s poems earlier when she speaks straight forward of her thoughts and feelings about women being educated in society, and she had no mask, or story of representation in her writing.