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Originally, I thought there were elements of Sorrows of An American that led to  a logical evolution of the course, with parallels stemming from Leaves of Grass.  I noticed parallels between the writing style of Whitman and Hustvedt, from the realisim throughout their literature as well as the evolution of the self of the characters in each of the works of literature.  In regards to the context of the novels, I did not happen to find any links between the characters of the texts because Whitman left his situations and stories in his poetry open ended and open for interpretation, while Hustvedt was specific about the relationships with her characters and their development throughout the novel. After class on Thursday, I was left questioning these parallels and noticing the differences between the two texts more so than the similarities.  Although divergence is still a form of evolution, as this is how more stories and ideas are generated, it is harder to conceptualize the evolution of the course when such apparent differences come into light.  Incorporating Sontag's ideas into the processing of the texts, if interpretation was eliminated from the analysis of the texts, I feel as though a logical evolution would be more evident.  However since it is very difficult to eliminate all forms of interpretation from the text, comparison is inevitable.  Therefore, I would agree with the idea that was settled on at the end of class on Thursday, that I am questioning the evolution of the literary portion of this course due to the understanding of biological evolution from the first portion of the course.