So this semester we have read a plethora of great stories, short and long, covering so many genres covering over three centuries of writing. I believe in that time there are so many things we can take away from the stories based on so many factors. I'll start out by saying this the change of how women are depicted in the times between all the stories just blows my mind in the most positive way possible. In the first and second pod we we were reading about stories in the 1800's around the pre civil war era pieces and, while the stories were still good, the treatment and depiction of women were absolutely horrendous and it just showed how much of a patriarchal society we were at that time. Women in these pieces were treated as non independent subjects to their brave and mighty man and when you think of the times we are in now, it just seems so ludicrous that that was once the norm of American society. I believe another change in the theme of how the stories were brought to us over the course of the semester was the rise and prominence of female and African American authors. I started my talk on how females were treated in the 19th century, but in the early to mid 20th centuries, female authors became far more frequent and their message and strive to eliminate the stigma of only male authors becoming famous was taken very seriously and there were several authors that led that charge. Along with female authors, another group of people that during the early 20th century that were gaining a lot of steam for powerful and meaningful stories, essays, and speeches were African Americans. African Americans, as depicted in the first few pods, were just treated as slaves nothing more nothing less and that was very depressing to read to say the least. So when events like the Harlem Renaissance came around it changed the perspective on how African Americans could be viewed as artists and authors. People like Langston Hughes have some of my favorite poems of all time and Martin Luther King Jr.'s passion in his speeches resonates with me to this date and seeing the diversification of who the face of your favorite author is was one of the most thrilling parts about all of the reading we did in this class and made the semester much more enjoyable. So with that being said, I loved this semester and while I'm sad I didn't post much more on this blog, I loved this class and it was one fun adventure. Good luck to everyone!
-JD
