Nelle Harper Lee, author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
Despite its contemporary character compared to the literature of other countries in the world, the American one is full of great stories. Stories arising from a history marked by slavery, progressivism or paranoia that, in a way, not only represent a certain period in the history of the country, but also of the West. These best books of American literature they become the best examples.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Published in 1850, The scarlet letter is considered one of the greatest works of North American literature. Set in puritanical Boston in 1642, the story features Hester Prynne, a pregnant woman who is hung with a scarlet "A" as a sign of her adultery. As secondary characters, the novel features Reverend Dimmesdale and physician Roger Chillingworth, actually Hester's jilted husband. The novel was adapted into a screen in 1995 starring Demi Moore and a general bashing from critics, as the film became a "too free" version of the literary classic.
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
In 1861, the United States was preparing for a Civil War that altered the lives of many people. In this case, that of characters like Scarlet O'Hara, the spoiled child of the owner of a cotton plantation in the state of Georgia whose situation changes completely when war and destruction break into her life. The novel, published in 1936, became an increased sales success after the premiere of the film adaptation starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable which would be released three years later.
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The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
El crack of 29 It was the worst economic crisis in its history for the United States, completely twisting a population that was forced to take new paths. The one reported in The grapes of wrath It is a long and dusty journey undertaken by the Joad family, forced to leave their Oklahoma lands behind to reach that promised land called California. Reflection of a generation and one of the most important episodes of the XNUMXth century in the United States, the novel won the pulitzer prize in 1940 to become an instant classic.
The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger
Summit work of American literature, The catcher in the rye arrived in 1951 to become one of the most controversial novels of his time. An X-ray of an increasingly changing America, Salinger's work follows in the footsteps of Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old who has just been expelled from his high school and has a general hatred for the world around him. His provocative language and references to sex, drugs, or prostitution made him a book as banned as it is fascinating and also one of the best sellers of the twentieth century.
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Included within the dystopian genre, Fahrenheit 451, equivalent to a temperature of 232,8 ºC is a philosophical novel published in 1953 that talks about crowd control. Specifically, of a society made up of firefighters in charge of burning books, since these are considered dangerous elements for humanity. A display of imagination that draws on the influences of another great American author such as Edgar Allan Poe and whose film adaptation was signed by François Truffaut in 1966.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Set during the Great Depression and inspired by an event in Lee's childhood, Kill a Mockingbird talks about two delicate topics such as racism and rape. The Pulitzer Prize-winning story tells the case facing the lawyer Atticus Finch, charged with defending a man of color accused of raping a young white woman. Quickly, the novel became one of the most analyzed in the colleges and universities of the United States, although some experts consider it too ambivalent for the black community, being much more embraced by the white population. The draft of the novel advertised as a sequel Go and post a sentry was published in 2015.
On the road, by Jack Kerouac
Written in just three weeks on the now famous roll of paper that Kerouac guarded, In the path was a whole social and literary phenomenon after its publication in 1957. Cornerstone of what is known as «beat generation«, The work is a monologue in which the author analyzes trips made through the United States and Mexico together with his friends between 1947 and 1950. Forerunner of the famous Route 66 and from a lifestyle marked by madness, jazz or drugs, En el camino became one of the most influential works of its time, one of changes in which the minds of young people began to open up to new ways and lifestyles.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Slavery in America It is the episode that has marked the history of a country in which racism is still latent. Also a theme that the literature barely echoed until a few decades ago. Hence Beloved of Toni Morrison was embraced after its publication in 1987 as a necessary book that perhaps had taken too long to arrive. Winner of pulitzer prize, the novel adapts the true events based on the slave Margaret Garner featuring Sethe, a woman of color who in 1856 leaves the Kentucky plantation where she lives in slavery to reach Ohio, considered a free state.
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
McCarthy is one of the great contemporary authors of the United States. A writer who navigates between the violence of No Country for Old Men or the racial The Sunset Limited to bet on the dystopian novel in The road. Set in a future devastated by a nuclear Holocaust, the novel recounts the harsh experiences of a father and son in a world full of dust and men thirsty for meat. The novel won both the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and had a film adaptation starring Viggo Mortensen in 2009.
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