Great American Novel

From ArticleWorld

The Great American Novel is a term used to describe the perfect American story. It is believed that to achieve the Great American Novel, writers must embody the American way of life and create a since of American nationalism in their work.

Great American Novel writers are traditionally (but not necessarily) American citizens who are very familiar with a particular region or sect of American society. Their novels mirror the world around them and give identity to American culture and writing.

The Great American Novel does not require a story to end happily or even necessarily to portray all aspects of America in a positive light.

Examples

• Moby Dick by Henry Melville
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
• The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• From Here to Eternity by James Jones
• Native Son by Richard Wright
• Absalom! Absalom! by William Faulkner
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper