Presentation Transcript

1. History of American Literature

   Created by Lori Lindsey and Melanie Gillespy. School of Library & Information Studies, University of Oklahoma
2. The creators of this exhibit wanted to select images to show the cultural context of each literary era--what was going on, how did it make people, both authors and readers, feel--in order to demonstrate why literature has had such a great influence in American life. Each section includes a brief introduction to the literary era, tying it closely to the current events of the day. The creators then describe the themes, methods, and influences on the literature along with reactions to the literature.  Lastly, the creators highlight selected authors to exemplify each literary period. At the end of each theme is a short reading list of recommended scholarly and literary sources. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the government and other non-profit governmentally funded agencies have gotten involved in promoting reading, as evidenced by the posters used to illustrate the suggested readings list for each theme. And, finally, an extended bibliography for the entire exhibit appears in the "For Further Reading" section.

3. Captivity Narrative

4. Captivity Narrative Captivity narratives are the earliest example of American literature and go back to the 17th century.  Captivity narratives, which were written after the experience, followed a typical pattern: First, Native Americans would attack a white settlement and capture individuals--typically women, who were easier to capture.  Individuals were taken to be used in trade with other tribes or to be ransomed back to the settlers. Next, the writer of the narrative would detail the physical and mental suffering at the hands of their captors.  The captives were tortured, mistreated, forced to walk long distances, and sometimes killed. Third, the captive would undergo a transformation in which they began to sympathize with their captors or they discovered an inner strength.  Frequently, female captives would reaffirm their purity and faith in God. Lastly, the captive would escape or be released.  There would also be a period of readjustment before they were fully welcomed back into their settlement.
5. Mary Rowlandson The most popular captivity narrative is that of Mary Rowlandson (published in 1682), who was taken into captivity by the Narragansett and Nipmuc tribes.  Three of her children were also taken captive.  Towards the beginning of their ordeal, Rowlandson's six-year-old daughter died.  This book was one of the first captivity narratives published, therefore it set up many of the common conventions and themes.  Rowlandson's account details the psychological experience of abduction and captivity.  In this narrative, Rowlandson depicts herself as being motivated by the will to survive.  She found herself being stronger--physically, mentally, and, most importantly, spiritually--than she had expected, eating food that she normally would not have eaten, and living in unheard of conditions.  She also learned about the humanity of her native captors and learned to bargain with them.
6. Purposes These captivity narratives served a variety of purposes for their writers—conversion stories, religious sermons, travelogues, personal narratives, and propaganda.  These narratives were used as ways of showing that, though the human race was evil, the faithful would receive saving grace and protection of God.  These narratives offer an insight into race relations between settlers and indigenous tribes.  Some of the depictions offered a more sympathetic view of the native peoples and argued for their conversion--the typical story of the White Man's Burden.  Other captivity narratives confirmed existing opinions of the natives as a dangerous threat that should be eliminated or as simple savages who need to be civilized.  Lastly, some of these narratives portrayed an opposing viewpoint of women by showing their strength in trying circumstances at a time when they were seen as very weak and mild.
7. Suggested Reading Scholarly Sources: Butler, Jon.  Religion in Colonial America.  New York, Oxford University Press, 2000. Dudley, William and Terry O’Neill.  Puritanism: Opposing Viewpoints.  San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1994. Hoople, Cheryl G.  As I Saw It: Women Who Lived the American Adventure.  New York: Dial Press, 1978.  Literary Sources: Cooper, James Fenimore.  The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757.  New York: Scribner’s, 1986. Lee, Nelson.  Three Years Among the Comanches: The Narrative of Nelson Lee, the Texas Ranger…  Norman:  University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. Rowlandson, Mary White.  The Sovereignty and Goodness of God:  A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.  Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.   Seaver, James E.  A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.

8. Transcendentalism

9. Transcendentalism Transcendentalism is the first distinctly American literary and philosophical movement.  It began in the late 1820s and hit its peak in the 1830s, but continued throughout the 19th century.  New England was the region primarily affected by this movement. The movement had its beginnings in the Unitarian Church, but was also influenced by English and German romanticism.  The writers in this movement emphasized making decisions based on feeling rather than reason.  The use of intuition was as valid as using empirical investigation to make decisions.  Transcendentalists believed that God was present in all of nature.  Through self-examination and spending time in nature, one could get to know God.  Adherents were also encouraged to investigate their feelings and commune with nature in order to bring about a greater understanding of themselves and the world around them.  Through this, people would ultimately act for the common good by performing acts of kindness and charity.
10. Themes Most Transcendentalist works are essays and speeches that were published in a single volume.  While many of the essays and speeches focused on spirituality, they were more about the feeling of the spiritual experience as opposed to directions on how to have a spiritual experience.  Nature was the primary place where man could focus because he was stripped of all extraneous elements, like in Thoreau's Walden. Self-reliance was a major theme in their writing.  This meant physically being able to take care of oneself.  But more importantly self-reliance meant thinking for oneself and questioning the former ways of doing things.  Civil disobedience, in which man stood by himself even if he was standing alone, was another important theme.  Abolition was another major cause of the Transcendentalists.  Through all of their self-examination, man would begin to act for the greater good and would begin to perform acts of charity.  Working to free the slaves was another important part of this greater good.
11. Walt Whitman Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was the first to take the Transcendentalist ideas and apply them to another form of literature—poetry.  He is most known for his work Leaves of Grass, which he edited and added to several times between 1855 and the deathbed edition of 1892.  The first edition contained twelve untitled poems; the last contained approximately four hundred poems.   Whitman wrote the collection of poems in response to Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1844 essay The Poet, which called for a poet to step up and write about America.  In this collection of poetry, Whitman experimented with free verse and various rhythms and reflects themes and feelings present during the urbanization of America.  His work focuses on nature and the role of mankind in it.  He felt that the mind, body, and spirit of man were worth celebrating.  Leaves of Grass went a long way in helping later writers develop the theme of America and what it means to be an American.
12. Suggested Reading Scholarly Sources: Meltzer, Milton.  Henry David Thoreau: A Biography.  Minneapolis:  21st Century Books, 2007. Phillips, Jerry.  Romanticism and Transcendentalism.  New York: Facts on File, 2006. Poolos, Jamie.  Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Father of the American Renaissance.  New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2006. Streissguth, Thomas.  Utopian Visionaries.  Minneapolis:  Oliver Press, 1999.  Literary Sources: Dickinson, Emily.  The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1960. Emerson, Ralph Waldo.  Nature and Selected Essays.  New York:  Penguin, 2003. Thoreau, Henry David.  The Annotated Walden: Walden, or Life in the Woods.  New York: Crown Publishers, 1970. Whitman, Walt.  Complete Poetry and Collected Prose.  New York: Viking Press, 1982.

13. Gilded Age and Progressive Era

14. Gilded Age and Progressive Era The Gilded Age and Progressive Era describe a period in American history that runs from roughly 1877 to 1913.  During this period, the country saw the rise of Big Business and a struggle as many people shifted away from traditional values.  The period is noted for its materialism and corruption, particularly in the world of business and politics. The Progressives fought to better the world through various reforms.  They were more optimistic about the future and believed in people having the opportunity to rise and change their status. The literature at this time features realistic portrayals of daily life as opposed to the idealized version of the romantics and the Transcendentalists.  Many novels either point out the tensions underneath Victorian morality or outright criticize society.  Many of the novels, particularly those critiquing society, portrayed thinly veiled depictions of real people.  The work of this period heavily influenced the novels written during the 20th century.
15. Realism and Naturalism Literature at this time was marked by two styles—realism and naturalism.  Realism is a reporting of events in daily life without judgment.  There is extreme attention to detail in these novels.  Common elements of realism include: emphasis on the character and their development (Henry James’s work); psychology; unreliable narrators; and natural speech (Mark Twain).  In some of the novels of this period, there is not a fast-moving plot with cataclysmic changes in a character's life, but rather a close examination of daily life and the character's development over a period of time. Naturalism goes further than realism, seeking to explain the underlying causes behind a character’s words, actions, and thoughts as opposed to reporting what happened.  This type of novel frequently uses heredity and social condition to explain a character.  In many ways, naturalism is a novelized rendering of Social Darwinism.  A character's environment--specifically their economic class--was what ultimately led to their fate.  Naturalism can be called an outgrowth of realism and many authors actually incorporated both techniques in their work, especially Edith Wharton.
16. Criticism of Culture Mark Twain coined the term “Gilded Age” based on a quotation in Shakespeare's King John.  The phrase has two possible meanings.  It may have referred to gilding gold (adding a layer of gold to actual gold), which is extremely wasteful and ridiculous.  The other possible meaning is a comparison between a Golden Age and a Gilded Age, in which life looked glittering, but was actually an imitation of something grander.  Much of the literature at this time criticized the materialism and corruption that spread throughout society, particularly in the major cities of New York and Chicago.  Many novels stopped at criticizing businessmen and politicians.  Some, however, outlined utopias for how life should be.   Novels at this time also criticized the hypocrisy of people promoting Victorian values of respectability, restraint, and duty in public, while acting dishonorably in private.  Edith Wharton’s novels are known for their critique of the upper class in New York acting in this way.  This was the period when the term "nouveau riche" developed.  The wealthy people from established families looked down on the newly rich, who were often gaudy and did not know how to properly act in society.
17. Kate Chopin and Literature by Women The Progressive Age was an important step for women.  More women than before were publishing and having literary careers of their own, such as Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin.  This was not always without consequences because men were still supposed to be the leaders of their family and women belonged in the home. Kate Chopin is considered to be an early feminist writer because of her depiction of strong women who carved out identities for themselves.  Chopin's upbringing led her to support a woman's right to have an identity of her own.  Her most famous work is The Awakening.  In the novella, the main character, Edna, struggles with her own views on femininity and motherhood and worries about her own wants and needs, which clashed with the prevailing attitude of the time.  Some critics accepted Chopin’s story and praised the work while others condemned her work for rejecting established gender roles.  By the time of her death in 1904, she was widely considered one of the best writers of the period.
18. Suggested Reading Scholarly Sources:  Bingham, Jane.  Women at War: The Progressive Era, World War I, and Women’s Suffrage.  New York: Chelsea House, 2011. Hakim, Joy.  An Age of Extremes: 1880-1917.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. McNeese, Tim and Richard Jensen.  The Gilded Age and Progressivism, 1891 - 1913.  New York: Chelsea House, 2010.  Literary Sources: Chopin, Kate. The Awakening, and Selected Stories. New York: Penguin Books, 1984. Crane, Stephen.  The Red Badge of Courage.  New York: Norton, 1982.   Dreiser, Theodore.  Sister Carrie.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. Twain, Mark.  The Gilded Age.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

19. Modernism

20. Modernism and the Lost Generation World War I marked the split between the Victorian values of the 19th and early 20th century in favor of modernist values, which sought to completely overturn the past.  During this period was a sharp increase in mechanization, which led to feelings of alienation and disillusionment.  Elements of modernism continue from World War I until the early 1960s.  This is because both World War I and World War II caused sudden and unexpected breaks with tradition and a lack of stability. The mechanized mass death of World War I led to disillusionment amongst the younger generations.  These people completely rejected the behavior, morality, and attitudes of the previous generation.  This disillusionment led to some of the world’s best literature.  This literature focused on the plight of the individual while society crumbled around them.  The forms and methods of the past were frequently seen as dead ends, so Modernist literature sought to be new and different.
21. The Lost Generation A group of young writers, feeling alienated from the American way of life, moved to Paris and became known as the Lost Generation.  The generation was lost because they were the most affected by the war, having seen its horrors firsthand.  At this time, it was much cheaper to live in Paris.  Writers and their families could escape responsibility, and Paris had a history for being a haven of inspiration for artists and writers.  Every night was a party. Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald are the most famous members of the Lost Generation.  Many of the Lost Generation writers got their start in the small English-language magazines published overseas for the expatriate community. Their works tended to be highly autobiographical and focused on the unconventional attitudes of and the alienation experienced by the authors.  These novels inspired Americans at home to travel and to attempt to imitate the lives of the Lost Generation, even their self-destructive tendencies.  The novels of the Lost Generation also frequently included a first person narrator that was unreliable.  The characters struggled to find meaning in a world that was chaotic and uncontrollable.
22. The Flapper Back in the United States, many cultural phenomena contributed to the popularity of the Lost Generation and other Modernists.  One of these is the rise of the flapper.  Flappers were women who cut their hair, wore shorter dresses, smoked and drank, drove cars, worked outside the home, and went on dates with men.  Women had recently won the right to vote.  More women began going to college.  Flappers were more sexually liberated than their Victorian counterparts and illegally obtained birth control in order to be in control of their futures.  This new attitude led to smaller families and rising divorce rates.  Flappers were outspoken and just wanted to have fun.  They personified the excesses and modern attitudes of the Roaring 20s.  Novels and movies of this period began depicting stronger, more interesting female characters.  These women lived on their own or with female roommates and frequently worked in little shops or as secretaries to businessmen.  They were able to hold their own when talking to men instead of meekly standing in the corner.
23. Prohibition and Jazz Other major themes of the Modernists were alcohol and partying.  The Volstead Act, which prohibited the sale of alcohol for commercial consumption, went into effect in 1920.  Poor implementation laws led to the rise of speakeasies, bootlegging, and other underground sources of entertainment.  Young people, who had more money and freedom than ever before, glorified this type of behavior.  Many Modernist novels depict characters drinking and going to parties.   Jazz, which has its roots in black culture, was another major influence on the literature of this time.  Indeed, jazz music created an entire culture that affected entertainment and youth.  Modernist writers employed the rhythm, form, and structure of jazz music in their literature.  Jazz halls and music were also frequently depicted in the party scenes of many Modernist novels.  Traditionalists viewed the meshing of white and black culture caused by the popularity of jazz music in horror, which only made Modernists more determined to embrace jazz music and culture.
24. Sinclair Lewis and Satirical Novels Another important branch of Modernism includes the satirical novel.  These novels, much like those of the Progressive Era, pointed out the hypocrisy and lack of fulfillment in American culture and they criticize the effects of capitalism and materialism during the 1920s.  As the middle class developed, people began moving out of large cities to the suburbs, where they could mostly control the culture.  Artists began moving in the cities, where culture flourished.  This led to a cultural divide between the middle class and the artists.  Artists felt the middle class was confining and boring and the middle class thought the artists were immoral.  This led to a series of novels that were critical of middle class life. Sinclair Lewis was one of the most famous and successful novelists of this type.  His Main Street depicts a small town in the Midwest, where there is petty gossip and back-stabbing, which points out that even small towns are not as wholesome as they seem.  Almost every town has a Main Street, so Lewis’s novel could be talking about any town, making it a highly effective form of criticism.  Lewis's Babbitt depicts the hollowness of middle class life and the pressures to conform.  Both novels had their share of critics and supporters.  However, it is the ruthless critique of American society that most stands out and made people question their choices.
25. Suggested Reading Scholarly Sources: Irvine, Coco.  Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl’s Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age.  Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota Press, 2011. Lathbury, Roger, Jerry Phillips, Michael Anesko, and Patricia Linehan.  American Modernism (1910-1945).  New York: Facts on File, 2010. Lazo, Caroline Evensen.  F. Scott Fitzgerald: Voice of the Jazz Age.  Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2003. Pingleton, Timothy J.  A Student’s Guide to Ernest Hemingway.  Berkeley Heights, N.J.:  Enslow Publishers, 2005. Literary Sources: Fitzgerald, F. Scott.  The Great Gatsby.  New York: Scribner, 1996. Hemingway, Ernest.  The Sun Also Rises.  New York: Scribner, 1996. Lewis, Sinclair.  Babbit.  London:  Vantage, 1994. Pound, Ezra.  Poems and Translations.  New York: Literary Classics, 2003.

26. Harlem Renaissance

27. Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance describes a flowering of black writers, musicians, artists, photographers, philosophers, and intellectuals during the 1920s and 1930s.  In the wake of the Jim Crow laws of the South, many blacks moved to urban areas in the North.  At the end of World War I, white men found that blacks had taken over their jobs.  This led to a period of increased violence between blacks and whites and several major cities experienced large scale race riots.  As a result, even more blacks moved up North to urban areas where they could find work of some kind.  The most prominent of these areas was found in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.   During the 1920s, artists of all kinds found it easier to live and work in the cities.  The creation of historically black colleges throughout the country led to more black people receiving a college education.  Increased higher education, support from publishing companies and wealthy patrons, and the force of the NAACP, led black artists and thinkers to bring about pride in black culture and heritage.
28. Beginnings and Themes W.E.B. Du Bois was among the first to call for a distinct African-American form of art.  He encouraged the black artists to create art based on their culture, not based on the predominant white culture.  He was a founder and leader of the NAACP.  Even before World War I, he had supported the publication of literary works by black authors and worked to foster pride in the black culture and heritage.  His essays inspired many black artists to create and to have pride in their history. The Harlem Renaissance is known more for its poetry than even its literature.  This poetry followed the Modernist conventions of form and style, but was more heavily influenced by jazz music.  Many saw jazz music as a way of casting off negative feelings by creating upbeat, quick tempos.  Artists in the Harlem Renaissance viewed their efforts as a way of casting off the blues of daily life.  Some literature and poetry of the Harlem Renaissance is an indictment against continued discrimination and violence against blacks.  Other literature reminds the black community to stay united and strong so that they can bring about change in their circumstance.  The Harlem Renaissance eventually became a part of the “New Negro” movement of the 1940s and 1950s, which ultimately transformed into the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
29. Suggested Reading Scholarly Sources:  Giovanni, Nikki.  Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate:  Looking at the Harlem Renaissance Through Poems.  New York: H. Holt, 1996. Hardy, P. Stephen.  Extraordinary People of the Harlem Renaissance.  New York: Children’s Press, 2000. Hill, Laban Carrick.  Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance.  New York: Little, Brown, 2003. Rhynes, Martha E. I, Too, Sing America: The Story of Langston Hughes.  Greensboro, N.C.:  Morgan Reynolds, 2002. Literary Sources: Du Bois, W.E.B.  Dark Princess: A Romance.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Hughes, Langston.  The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.  New York: Knopf, 1994. Hurston, Zora Neale.  Their Eyes Were Watching God.  New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Larsen, Nella.  Quicksand.  New York: Penguin Books, 2002.

30. Proletarian Literature

31. Proletarian Literature The excesses and irresponsible practices of the 1920s led to a major collapse of the financial system in the United States.  People were impoverished.  Farmers suffered the most because of the devastation caused by a massive drought, called the Dust Bowl.  People blamed the government for their problems.  Early efforts at relief were unsuccessful, which created even more distrust.  At this time, Americans were so concerned about the problems in their country, that they did not focus on the rest of the world.  This isolationist attitude is reflected in the literature of the times. The Proletarian Novel was a popular form between 1929 and 1941—the years of the Great Depression.  This type of literature blends the author’s political beliefs into the narrative of their novel.  These novels depict the poor and working classes in a sympathetic light, while frequently criticizing the rich for being uncaring.  These novels were so popular at this time because of the impacts of the Great Depression, which left 13 million people unemployed, 34 million people belonging to families without a full-time wage-earner, and nearly 2 million people homeless.  At this time, there were approximately 123 million people in the country.  With nearly 25% of school children reported as malnourished, people were particularly angry at the government and authors were able to capitalize on this.
32. Okies The Okies depicted in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath became symbols of this period.  Though the term originally referred to people from Oklahoma, during the Great Depression it was applied to all of the poor people who moved west from Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, and other states in the area.  This region was hit not only by the financial depression, but also by the Dust Bowl.  Many of these people were share croppers who did not even own their land.  When the owners sold the land or decided to use machines to plow the land, they were kicked out of their homes.  They could not find employment elsewhere.  If they did own their own land, the crops would not grow, which meant they could not pay their bills and so they lost the land.   There was no reason to stay.  Families stacked and packed all of the necessary possessions onto makeshift trucks and left everything else behind.  They headed west to search for employment and a better way of life in California.  Novels such as The Grapes of Wrath mixed social criticism with details about the American way of life to point out its flaws. The plight of the Okies was used to highlight the poor living conditions of so many Americans and to urge governmental reform and compassion from the wealthy.  They also pointed out the dirty business practices of companies printing ads for workers when there were not jobs.
33. John Dos Passos John Dos Passos’s work is another example of Proletarian Literature.  Though he initially started as a member of the Lost Generation, he became increasingly radicalized and critical of the American way of life.  After studying socialism in Russia, he supported the Communists in the Spanish Civil War until a close friend was executed by the Communists.  However, it is the U.S.A. Trilogy for which he is most known. HisU.S.A. Trilogy depicts two Americas—one rich and one poor.  In addition to regular narration, Proletarian novels frequently used snippets of current events to illustrate their points about the conditions of life in America.  The trilogy uses four types of narrative technique--narrative, newspaper clippings and song lyrics, short biographies of public figures, and a stream of consciousness style (a Modernist construct).  In this trilogy, he wrote admiringly of such Leftish causes as workers’ rights and current events like the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.  Throughout the story, Dos Passos clearly sympathizes with the poor and condemns the rich.
34. Suggested Reading Scholarly Sources:  Collier, Christopher.  Progressivism, the Great Depression, and the New Deal, 1901 - 1941.  New York: Benchmark Books, 2001. Fleming, Maria.  A Place at the Table: Struggles for Equality in America.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Marrin, Albert.  Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl.  New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2009. Meltzer, Milton.  The American Promise: Voices of a Changing Nation, 1945 - Present.  New York: Bantam Books, 1990. Literary Sources: Dos Passos, John.  The U.S.A. Trilogy.  Boston:  Mariner Books, 2000. Sinclair, Upton.  The Cry for Justice:  An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest.  New York: L Stuart, 1964.  Steinbeck, John.  The Grapes of Wrath.  New York: Chelsea House, 1987.

35. The Beat Generation

36. The Beat Generation Much as the horrors of trench warfare and mass death during World War I impacted the Modernist writers, the atomic bomb, Cold War, and Red Scare following World War II heavily shaped the writers of the Beat Generation.  The Beat Generation was not a large movement in terms of numbers, but it had a tremendous impact on American culture. The novels of this period were written in a stream of consciousness style, which meant that the writers wrote like they thought, as opposed to expressing a complete thought before moving forward with the plot.  These novels questioned the rampant materialism of the post-war boom.  The writers used bold, expressive, straightforward language, which shocked the public.  Jazz was a major influence in terms of the rhythm, free expression, and spontaneity of the literature.  The ideals of the Transcendentalists are also apparent in this movement.
37. Jack Kerouac and The Road Novel As the writer of the most popular of the Beat novels, On the Road, Jack Kerouac became the face of the movement.  Kerouac met the other members of the Beat movement, such as Allen Ginsburg, at Columbia University in the 1940s.  Though mostly well educated and from middle class families, the Beats embraced an anti-establishment, anti-academy attitude.  They felt that these constructs tied people down and kept them from living their most natural lives--much in the same way that the Transcendentalists believed nature freed man of his ties.  Kerouac in particular liked the feel of the open road and crossed the country numerous times.  This led to the popularity of the road novel.  Characters in these novels go on a journey in order to find themselves and/or spiritual enlightenment.  The destination mattered less to these novelists than the experiences they gained along the way.  Beginning in the 1950s, many teenagers either had their own vehicles or had a friend with one and so they took to the open road to find themselves.  It is a tradition that continues to this day.
38. Counter-culture Though Kerouac claimed that the Beat movement was over by the time it hit the mainstream, the counter-culture, which embraced the Beats, actually misunderstood the message.  Kerouac focused on finding himself and was ultimately reacting to World War II.  The readers of this literature, on the other hand, focused on the rejection of society depicted in the novels and were reacting to the conformity caused by the Cold War and McCarthyism.  Similarly, initially, the Beat Generation used drugs to enhance their minds and experiences.  The counter-culture used drugs to rebel and to escape from reality.  This disparity is understandable because the events written about by the Beat Generation occurred in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but the books were not published until the late 1950s and the early 1960s. Surviving members of the Beat movement became heavily involved in the drug culture and the counter-culture movements in the United States.  This led the Beats and Beat culture to become affiliated with the hippies and anti-war movement.  The anti-war movement in the United States was a largely student-led protest.  They created signs that used profanity for shock value to get their message across, much as the Beats attempted to shock readers with their literature. Ultimately, the Beat Generation significantly broadened the definition of what is acceptable in American literature.
39. Suggested Reading Scholarly Sources:  Corrigan, Jim.  The 1950’s Decade in Photos: “The American Decade.”  Berkeley Heights, N.J.:  Enslow Publishers, 2010. Heims, Neil.  Allen Ginsburg.  Philadelphia:  Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. McKee, Jenn.  Jack Kerouac.  Philadelphia:  Chelsea House Publishers, 2004. Pekar, Harvey.  The Beats: A Graphic History.  New York: Hill and Wang, 2009. Literary Sources: Burroughs, William S.  Naked Lunch.  New York: Grove Press, 2001. Ginsberg, Allen.  Howl, and Other Poems.  San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1996. Kerouac, Jack.  On the Road.  New York: Viking, 1997.