Writing Styles in "Classic" Literature

For me, F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing style in The Great Gatsby epitomizes quintessential American literature. His vivid descriptions of the optimism, albeit false, following the Great War encapsulate a certain unwavering belief in the idea of what America stands for. Quotes from The Great Gatsby have always echoed with a sense of the grandeur that has defined America. Personally, I am always struck by the eternal optimism that the novel concludes with, despite all the of the horror that precedes it. Who else but Fitzgerald could write such beautiful and unforgettable lines like "It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believe in you as you would like to believe in yourself" and "So we beat on, boats against the current, bourne back ceaselessly into the past." Unarguably, The Great Gatsby defines both a generation and America as a nation.

I was less sure that John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath successfully defines American literature. Instead, I was always struck by the pessimism of Steinbeck's novel. Rather than an America where anything was possible if individuals worked hard, the Joads are constantly at a loss. Their journey West is not in search of riches, but in order to survive. Thus The Grapes of Wrath has always reverberated with me as more of the tragedy of a failed America.

When I last read The Grapes of Wrath I was a junior in high school. I did not want to see an image of a nation where people were not guaranteed success or where the only real currency is survival as I applied to colleges and hoped for the best. Although we are just beginning to climb out the recession, thus far it has not affected me as profoundly as it did others. However, I think it has forced us to witness the reality of an America divided between the “Haves and the Have-Nots.”

So this time around, I am reading The Grapes of Wrath with a more expanded mindset. Steinbeck and Fitzgerald suggest that the “America” is not a one-dimensional protagonist. Instead, like many of the other characters, this figure is also striving to mature, come to terms with its past, and adjust for whatever the future may bring.