The Evolution of America and Simultaneous Evolution of American Literature

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Recommended: The history of American literature

From the times of our Founding Fathers in to the current millennium, literature has evolved alongside the changing times of the authors who define it. Throughout our history, we can witness literary changes simultaneously to various events in our history.

We have stories that not only tell a tale of one’s imagination, but also dictate what life was like living in those times, “The pattern of the life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, or ‘Mark Twain,’ for seventy-five years was the pattern of America…” (Perkins 134) We feel the pain and insecurities during times of war that helped to shape our country and what we stand for, “In 1945, people born in the first part of the century had lived through thirty years of war, social unrest and economic disaster. Younger men and women could remember nothing else.” (Perkins 1257)

African Americans are the most heavily impacted, in my perception, as it pertains to American Literature. In the early days of America, Africans were utilized as slaves and denied educational privileges that enabled literacy, let alone empowered them to become gr...

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