The question of what makes American literature American can be simply answered as any piece of writing that was written by someone who is American. While that is just one part, American literature has to reflect American culture as well as what America has been through. To answer this question, there must be a common idea that recurs in many books written by American authors.One of these common ideas that have shown up in many books is the character style of being an anti-hero. An anti-hero is a character that possesses “heroic” characteristics, but at the same time possesses characteristics that most heroes wouldn’t have. They have the goals or desires that a hero has, but the way they go about achieving them may be in an unheroic way. Just a few books that contain this character style include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Things They Carried, Catch 22, and The Great Gatsby.
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Gatsby goes against the traditional ideals of being a moral hero, and achieving the American Dream through honest means. Gatsby is not a romanticized character, he is flawed like the average person. He is willing to do anything to be with Daisy, who is representative of the wealth and life Gatsby wants to have. The character trait of the anti-hero appears in many novels throughout american literature because it goes against a typical social normality, which makes it more relatable.
The character trait of the anti-hero also appears in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Catch-22 is a novel about men fighting during World War II. Yossarian, the main character and narrator, is the anti-hero of this novel. Yossarian is an anti-hero because he flees to Sweden for the sake of his life. This action, and his fear of death that is evident throughout the novel. He is not portrayed as the brave soldier who is willing to fight, but rather a man who only truly cares about his well being rather than fighting for
Gatsby goes against the traditional ideals of being a moral hero, and achieving the American Dream through honest means. Gatsby is not a romanticized character, he is flawed like the average person. He is willing to do anything to be with Daisy, who is representative of the wealth and life Gatsby wants to have. The character trait of the anti-hero appears in many novels throughout american literature because it goes against a typical social normality, which makes it more relatable.
The character trait of the anti-hero also appears in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Catch-22 is a novel about men fighting during World War II. Yossarian, the main character and narrator, is the anti-hero of this novel. Yossarian is an anti-hero because he flees to Sweden for the sake of his life. This action, and his fear of death that is evident throughout the novel. He is not portrayed as the brave soldier who is willing to fight, but rather a man who only truly cares about his well being rather than fighting for