History of American literature from the 19th century

This paper will present an author for each time period and explain the relevant social construct being presented by the author during the time period. All this is in the wider aim of explaining the history of American literature. The history of American literature dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. From this time authors, poets and novelist were aligning their books, novels and poems to the prevalent social issues in the societies. This was either from personal experience or the need to address specific issues evident in the society. Miss Watson was a Christian but still considered Jim to be his slave and not a person. In chapter 42, Slavery has been presented in a number of instances. The manner in which Aunty Sally explains Jim’s situation depicts clearly depicts how the society embraced slavery.

The excerpt below is from the 25th paragraph in the topic. "the runaway nigger?  'Deed he hasn't. He grew up in the larger town of Hannibal. These components of the author’s life have been depicted in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel assumes the boyhood setting of the author along the Mississippi river where Huck and Jim adventures are propagated. The author’s adventures along the Mississippi river are also portrayed in the novel during the escape of Jim and Huck from the Mississippi valley. Mark Twain also uses the local Mississippi dialect in his novel which provides the personality of the author. This forced him north to Chicago where he became involved in various activities that propelled him to be the most famous African American of his time.

In the novel, Wright presents racism through the protagonist Dave who is a farm worker. Dave is embroiled in a battle to achieve individual identity but the gnaws of racism hinder him from doing so. He is treated as a minor and with no respect by his colleagues at work mainly because of his black color. As a result, he decides to go against the law and he buys a gun which leads to him to killing Jenny (a mule) which consequently lands him into trouble with his employer. Just as Dave, he opted to change the status quo by moving north to Chicago where he was more acceptable in the society. After the two world wars, the society came to accept that all people are equal.

Consequently, racism and slavery became a thing of the past forcing authors, novelists and poems to adopt new themes in their works. This included the adoption of new heroes which were fictional in most cases. This shifted the general themes from what is happening in the society to what the society needs. Raymond J. Rodrigues ascertains that conflicts are relevant in the entirety of bless me, Ultima. He explains how the novel presents diverse conflicts in the novel. The life of Antonio is full of conflicts which leads him to be stressed and inappreciative of the nature surrounding him. Raymond presents questions like how loyal is one to be to his or her parents and the clarity of whether nature controls our lives more than God.

Authors play key roles in the molding of the society given that through their works they are able to identify vices and offer solutions to the vices hence correcting them. The current literature tends to respond more to the needs of the readers and not those of the society as a whole hence the adaptation of science fiction and supernatural themes. The future of the art is unpredictable given that current generation authors are embracing their imagination more than the prevalent issues in the societies. References Robert S. Levine et al. The Norton anthology of American literature edited by Robert S. Levine et al. : The Man Who Was Almost a Man. W. W. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 161, Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center.