Hopelessness in American Literature

After having read all of the novels assigned in this class as well as American novels that were not assigned, I’ve noticed that they tend to have a bleak view of the American dream and experience. I often hear people talking about how American literature portrays the idealized image of the American dream and thus has an overall positive outlook on life and the future. While I can understand how a book like The Grapes of Wrathcan be interpreted as a portrayal of American resolve through extremely difficult circumstances, the rest of the books don’t seem to have any convincing optimistic interpretations. For example, in both of the novels written by Cormac McCarthy that I read this semester, Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men, the antagonist, who in both cases seems to represent evil itself, ultimately wins. Day of the Locustdepicts Hollywood degeneracy in graphic detail. While these books contain intriguing stories, they carry a heavy message that maybe the United States and the American dream isn’t what we thought it was. I think that it’s important to get this realism across to the audience because it shatters their previously held naïve beliefs and makes them better equipped for the real world. However, I do think that maintaining a certain level of optimism in literature is very important if the author’s goal is to bring about meaningful change.