The theme of American literature

1. The theme of American literature.

In my opinion, the war expecialy the anti-war, is the eternal theme in American literature.

There are a large number of works about war, such as the American civil war, spanish civil war,

world war I and II, and so on.

Hemingway 《a Farewell to Arms》 The greatest American novel based on World War

I, 《A Farewell to Arms》 cemented 巩固Ernest Hemingway's reputation as one of the most

important novelists of the twentieth century. Drawn largely from Hemingway's own experiences,

it is the story of a volunteer ambulance driver wounded on the Italian, the beautiful British nurse

with whom he falls in love, and their journey to find some small sanctuary in a world gone mad

with war. By turns beautiful and tragic, tender and harshly realistic, 《A Farewell to Arms》 is one

of the supreme literary achievements of our time.

2. Poem：Robert Frost < The road not taken>

"The Road Not Taken" is a poem by Robert Frost, published in 1916 in the collection

Mountain Interval, it is the first poem in the volume and is printed in italics.

stanza 1 The poem begins as if when the poet was walking in a wood in late autumn at a fork

in the road. He was choosing which road he should follow. Actually, it is concerned with the

important decisions which one must make in life; one must give up one desirable thing in order to

possess the other.

Stanza2.After the judgment and hesitation, the traveler makes up his mind to take the road

which looks grassy and wants wear. This is often beloved to be the symbol of the poet’s choice of

a solitary life---taking poetry writing as his life profession

Stanza3.The two roads are equally pretty, so as soon as he made the choice of the one, the

poet felt painful for abandoning the other. He is quite aware that his intention of “next choice”

will be nothing than an empty promise.

Stanza4.The poet was imagining many years later when he recalling the choice he made

today, he would respond with nothing else but a sigh, for it would be too hard for anyone, after

many more experiences in life, to make any comment on the choice made early in life.

1）Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous

journey, life.

2） There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to head.

It is one's past, present and the attitude with which he looks upon his future that determines the

shade of the light that he will see the poem in.

3）It is always difficult to make a decision because it is impossible not to wonder about the

opportunity cost, what will be missed out on.

4）The fact that the traveler took this path over the more popular, secure one indicates the

type of personality he has, one that does not want to necessarily follow the crowd but do more of

what has never been done, what is new and different.

5）Once you have performed an act or spoken a word that crystallizes who you are, there is

no turning back and it cannot be undone.

Novel：Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is Mark Twain's most popular book, and its hero is a national image, celebrated as a special American figure both at home and abroad. Tom Sawyer's

brave spirit, winsome smile, and inventive solutions to the problems of everyday life in fictional

St Petersburg - whether getting his friends to whitewash a fence for him, or escaping the demands

of his vigilant Aunt Polly - have won him the hearts of generations. His success in creating this

plain but evocative language precipitated the end of American reverence for British and European

culture and for the more formal language associated with those traditions.

3. Realism: refers to an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent

figures exactly as they act or appear in life, preferably from lower-class life. Realism was a

reaction against Romanticism or a move away from the bias towards romance and self-creating

fictions, and it paved the way to Modernism.It expresses the concern for commonplace and the

low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human

experience. Henry James. < The Portrait of A Lady> A psychological realistic writer,

short-story writer, playwright, critic, essayist. He describes upper-class unmarried women

involved in various courtship rituals and marriage rites with upper-class men at the private level,

and records the social splits that separate males from females in the nation’s public life.

Modernism: an international movement in literature and arts, especially in literary