The Great American Author

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The Great American Author

The word “American” has a definition that can almost never be found twice. Part of the reason behind this is because the American can hardly define himself. Is he a person born on the soil of this nation, or is he a person who resides here regardless of his birth place? Is an American someone who believes that freedom is a right, or is it someone who thinks freedom is a privilege? These definitions, and many others, are the thoughts of Americans and non- Americans alike. The great writers of America can be confined by literary boundaries. He does not have to be a poet or even a novelist. He does not even have to be a he for that matter. The great American writers do not have meet at a common ground about what America is or what it is supposed to be. In this paper the reader will be given several examples of how two different American writers go about defining this country and its people, whether they try to or not.
To some people, being American is a state of mind. Many would argue that any thoughts of freedom and democracy are American no matter where they originate from. Others may say that the American is an endangered species. The way the great American writer Mark Twain saw America was different from all of the above. Twain thought of the America as a great and vast canvas waiting to be painted by anyone who would be willing to try. He also thought no one was taking advantage of this great opportunity. To him America was a great jackpot waiting to be claimed. In his writings it seems like some things are obvious like his awareness of the state of society in his country and other things are not so obvious, like society’s awareness own awareness of its state.
In the classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain has already set the pace for his interpretation of America and what it means to be American with the title itself. The title uses the name of the main character,...