My Virtual Scrapbook Reflective Tag
Reflective Tag
My Virtual Scrapbook has given me time to take a retrospective look onto what we have explored throughout this semester. Through every author we have read and analyzed this semester, we have gained another perspective of American society and culture. This collection of differing perspectives acted for me as a broken puzzle, and projects such as this one help me piece together what we have learned so that I may have a better understanding of American history and society. I believe that is exactly what this project has done for me. The results of my cross-generational analysis were shocking, and this project has given me a new appreciation for the works we have read as a class. Looking at some of the societal norms that were closely practiced in American history would be laughed at or outright rejected in modern-day American society. For instance, the notion that Walt Whitman’s writing in Leaves of Grass being overly sexual would make any child of the 21st Century giggle. What popular culture presents to the public as mainstream nowadays is leagues beyond Whitman’s sensual words. Additionally, the degree to which Kerouac’s era rejected homosexuality is quickly becoming an antiquated idea. Modern society almost insists upon tolerance when it comes to sexual preference. These are just of the few drastic differences I have seen across American history through the authors we have studied. However, I have also realized that it is from the ideas of these past generations that seem outdated, that we have drawn influences into what we consider American culture today. So in that way, the timeless American authors we have studied will always have a place in American culture.