Since America has always been marked by its diversity, it seems difficult to identify a single theme or quality as “American.” Certainly, the works we read this semester have been diverse, stylistically, thematically, and geographically. Still, they have in common an ambivalent take on change and tradition, on new ways vs. old ways, that seems very American.
The time period in which all the works were written (late 19th and early 20th century) seems particularly representative of this ambivalence. Indeed, it seems almost like a national adolescence, with all of the anger, excitement and confusion that accompany that time period. Thus, the characters seek to make a break from the very traditions which shaped them. Many of the characters seems to have a love/hate relationship with European culture, which serves as a sort of absent parent. In The Age of Innocence, Newland Archer and all of the New York society of which he is a part affect an air of superiority about European......
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