Varying Definitions of 'America' in American Literature

Varying Definitions of 'America' in American Literature

Denotations and connotations inherent in the word "America" in different works of American literature have a number of similarities and differences. Often, the definition of the word is not known at the beginning of a work and one of the thematic elements is the search for the true "America," whatever it may be for the author in question. Many American authors raise the question, "What is America?" and go about answering it in their own way. This is, perhaps, the only common element across the great variety of works in the collective body of American literature, that "America" means different things to different authors, and that one of the beautiful aspects of America is this diversity of views.

The earliest definitions and connotations for "America" as an idea come from, of course, the Native Americans living and creating a complex oral literature long before the word "America" came into existence. In this sense, America and the Earth are synonymous. There is not any distinction between the two, since "America" as a word does not exist, yet. The Earth, and thus America, is a living entity in its own right, and is to be revered and respected as such. This can be very clearly seen in the Navajo "Song of the Earth".

Below the East, the Earth, its face toward the East.

The top of its head is beautiful.

The soles of its feet are beautiful.

Its feet, they are beautiful.

Its legs, they are beautiful.

Here the earth is pictured as being an animal, and the repeated lines at the beginning and the end of the song,

The Earth is beautiful.

The Earth is beautiful.

The Earth is beautiful.

demonstrate the reverence fo...

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...graphical setting, but as a god or goddess figure. The divinity of America is one that is both beneficent and malignant at times, and the search for the "true America" seems to be not a search for a singular object or place, but is a search for one aspect of America while escaping from another aspect of America. America is both the provider of sustenance as well as the devourer of children, particularly its own children.

Works Cited

Thompson, Joanna L. "Kali." Kalika. Joanna L. Thompson. May 20, 2002.

< http://www.mach3ww.com/~thompsj/india/kali.htm>

Jack Kerouac's On the Road

Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

William Carlos Williams' Paterson

Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems

Tillie Olsen's Yonnondio

Native American Songs and Poems: An Anthology edited by Brian Swann

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass