What is the most American literatute? The works that most embody the idea and actualization of the nation?

What is the most American literatute? The works that most embody the idea and actualization of the nation?

Whitman - Leaves of Grass

Steinbeck - East of Eden

Gatsby, of course

I would also add Huckleberry Finn.

Anything by Toni Morrison

USA by Dos Passos

mcdonalds menu

great thread

Fucking Hell. I came here to say this. I'd say it's more like a McDonald's coupon though.

Fountainhead unfortunately.

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This.

Actually I think there's a strong argument for Walden as the perfect snapshot of the spirit which created America.

Tattoo by Earl Thompson. Not even joking.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem
The Crying of Lot 49
My Twisted World

Come to think of it, these may be more Californian than American. But since I've never lived any where else, its hard to say.

the Coca Cola logo

Naked Lunch

Faulkner anyone?
No southerners here?

Granted not many southerners have read him, but his portrait of the post-civil war south is pretty accurate

Not On the road?

Im not american so im genuinily interested about your point of view in that matter

That works too. They both offer a quintessentially American perspective, though Kerouac is more wide-eyed and excited, while Burroughs is cynical and bleaker. I happen to prefer Burrpughs, but if we had a metric to quantify American-ness, both works would be up there.

Transcedentalists are based. Whitman and Emerson are essential American writers too.

>on your young shoulders rest the hopes of mankind
What a load of shit
I could never be a soldier
Why should I give a fuck about iraqis

You guys are slipping...

Moby Dick

second'd

J R
even though they are bongs I'd say mason and dixon
the sound and the fury

Sounds like we've got a commie fuck. You better not live in America, I'm coming for you.

not many southerners have read him?

not many southerners have read AT ALL!

Tocqueville's Democracy in America