The Evolution of American Literature: An Analysis

Art imitates life. Or, does life imitate art? To this age-old debate, a study of American literature from the past five centuries may provide an answer. In the same way progression in art often emulates changes in life, American literature has evolved along with, and therefore reflects, the development of America as an independent nation. In the centuries-long formation of the nation, beginning even before there existed the concept of “America” as it is known today, its residents have searched for a sense of structure- whether spiritual, political, societal, or economic- to establish the nascent nation’s moral codes, laws, social conventions, and economic principles. Each successive progression in America’s development can be traced through the literature produced by generation after generation of American writers.

To start at the very beginning, the Puritan colonists of the New World during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries arrived in what would become New England with nothing much more than the shirts on their backs and a call from God to reform the Church of England. In Britain, the Puritans’ strict views and literal interpretations of the Bible clashed with the comparatively secular, Catholic influence of the Church of England and King James I. As America provided English Puritans an escape from their conflicts and land upon which to build a new standard of religion, the Puritans made their pilgrimage to the New World. Tasked with building a country out of a congregation, Puritan settlers built small communities centered around an embryonic form of theocratic government led by one governor who was directed by the minister. Without a real governing force as of yet, the residents of New England looked directly to the divine providence for structure: God would dictate what they did, how they lived, who was rewarded and who was punished- every aspect of Puritan life- a faith in God’s plan and a fear of God’s punishment for wrongdoing which is evident in Puritan literature. Minister Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” demonstrates religious the motivators for the Puritans’ obedience when he says “the bow of God’s wrath is bent…and justice bends the arrow at your heart…and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.” He emphasizes God’s pleasure, His fondness for His undeserving subjects, as their only protection from the punishment they deserve, and he warns of the horrors that will occur if that pleasant mood is soured as a way to ensure obedience in his community. Bereft of the laws and the structure provided by the monarchy, the religious leaders of New England utilized religious codes and a fear of divine punishment to keep order in their colonies, and in doing so established the beginnings of American morality.

With the turn of the century came a new literary movement: the Age of Reason. During the European Enlightenment, visitors traveled in droves to the thirteen British colonies now established in America, bringing over a new belief in rationalism and progressivism rather than solely in God, along with supplies, livestock, and the monarchy’s interest. As the colonies gained popularity among the residents of the mainland, the British parliament began to place regulations on the growing population of America, taxing all printed materials, glass, paint, and tea, dispatching customs officials to the colonies to catch smugglers, and eventually using armed naval and military officers to enforce these regulations. In protest against taxation without parliamentary representation and the threatening military presence, enlightened American colonists wrote speeches, essays, news articles, and other important documents using rationality and logic to inspire change. One such document was the Declaration of Independence, in which Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries wrote:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The explanatory style, sophisticated vocabulary, and political intention of Age of Reason literature starkly contrasts the plain style and religious focus of the Puritan writers, though they were both searching for the same thing- structure. While the Puritans looked to God for moral guidance, Age of Reason authors found within themselves the ability to reject corrupt and unequal policies and create their own political structure, thus erecting the fundamental pillars upon which American democracy would build: human rights, popular sovereignty, and independence.

In the 1800s, America’s first century of independence, occurred a drastic change in attitude among the literary greats, a complete rejection of the dull rationalism and practicality of the Age of Reason. With an established moral code and the beginnings of a government, the Transcendentalists focused on building a society. In a time where slavery was a contentious issue and America was on the brink of civil war, writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, a staunch abolitionist, and Henry David Thoreau enacted a movement to reevaluate societal values and conventions. The central tenets of Transcendentalism emphasized individualism, personal responsibility, and the importance of nature in spirituality. Emerson exemplifies these concepts in his essay “Self-Reliance”---on individualism, he writes “whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” and “to be great is to be misunderstood,” urging his audience to embrace their individuality even if it means they are doubted. To promote personal responsibility and self-confidence, he writes “the virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion.” He writes “he who would gather immortal palms…must explore if it be goodness” to emphasize the role nature plays in exploring one’s spirituality. When he voices his disapproval of American society in the line “society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of its eater,” he conveys to his audience the conviction with which he wants to enact change in the structure and values of American society, which he sees as one of exploitation and conformity. The Transcendentalists largely set the precedent for future American society, as evidenced by the fact that values they adopted, like individuality and reliance on oneself, are still central to what it means to be American today.

Finally, in the twentieth century, arguably one of the most eventful centuries in American history, there occurred the decade known today as the Roaring Twenties. “Roaring” with postwar optimism, economic prosperity, opulent parties, jazz music, and, despite the passage of the eighteenth amendment, lots of drinking, illegal activities and risky business ventures would cause this lifestyle of wealthy Americans to become so unstable that even before the next decade, it all came tumbling down in the first stock market crash of Great Depression. Even before its end, American freethinkers and intellectuals, many of whom the writers and artists who made up the Lost Generation, observed the recklessness with which their society was behaving and scorned them for it as something that could only end badly. One such writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, contributed to the call for economic reform with his internationally acclaimed novel The Great Gatsby, when he wrote of the characters who represented the immensely wealthy, “it was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (137). Warning his contemporaries of the adverse effects of their neglect and recklessness, especially in the stock market, Fitzgerald urged Americans to take more caution and keep more order in their lives. When the economic structure he demanded was awarded, many in the form of investment regulation laws, it redefined the American economy with changes in legislation and attitude that exist today to make sure such a traumatizing event never occurs again.

Art does indeed imitate life. As exemplified by the literature of the Puritans, the Age of Reason, the Transcendentalists, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, all within centuries of each other, American literature through time reflects the development of America as a nation. Respectively, each literary movement exhibits the steps America took to become what it is today: first, a set of moral and religious values was established, then the skeletal structure of the American democracy, followed by the reform of societal values and conventions, and finally, the uniquely American economy. The evolution of American literature is largely contributed to the search for structure in each facet of what would become American life, facilitating the development of America as a whole.

Works Cited

Edwards, Jonathan. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." 8 July 1741, Northampton, Massachusetts. Speech.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." 1841.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "The Great Gatsby." 1925.