Anti-Sentimentalism

As we talked about in class on Monday, "The Jungle," had its fair share of anti-sentimentalism.  I wanted to build off this and try and discover anti-sentimentalism in other readings we have discussed earlier in the semester.  As I began searching I came across "Our Nig," which can be considered an anti-sentimentalism novel as well.  First, I noticed that Freeman chooses not to dwell on her short-lived marriage in the story, instead she focuses on issues that might be considered more difficult.  We can then label this as anti-sentimentalism because she constructs the audience to view her in a more serious role by leaving little to no room for attachment. If she were to dwell on her emotional ties with her husband it would be less convincing to the audience of her tough interior.  I feel like the idea that she uses logic instead of emotion when choosing which situation to worry about gives her the label of someone who does not use emotion to her favor.  The literature stresses logic and reasoning, her decision to deal with more serious topics, instead of emotion.