American and British Literature

Although America and Great Britain are separated by an ocean, they are connected at the pen, so to speak. The similarities in their literature are more numerous than their differences. This is partly due to their common heritage, America having originally been a colony of England. Even beyond that, though, the literature of both countries was influenced by some of the same factors.

One such factor was the Industrial Revolution. The influence of that revolution upon both countries was significant. Authors of the era on both shores capitalized upon the horrors of the Industrial Revolution, largely to the exclusion of its rather substantial benefits. In England, books specifically detailing the miserable aspects of factory work abounded. Some of the evils that ensued from the revolution, such as child labor and the impersonal greed of the upper classes, were prominently featured. These novels were so heart-rending that they eventually resulted in many changes in the factory environment based on human rights issues as well as fostering an appreciation for democracy.

A bit later, a similar revolution occurred in America and was likewise reflected in the literature of the day. What had been a rural society was becoming an urban society due to industrial innovations, and many of the same ills depicted in England's revolution became a theme in American literature. In America, however, the industrial revolutio

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emed to be struggling against inner demons, and were often cast as archetypes that represented man wrestling with the evil within or with the problems of the ages. The difference between these two aspects of romanticism might be related to the different situations of the two countries at the time. England was a long-established country with a settled community life on its way out of years of oppression with hope for the future, while America was still a new country in the throes of unsettled government and uncertain prospects. American novelists were still living in the midst of revolution in a country that was for all intents and purposes a vast wilderness, and a society where the familiar class lines and comfortable traditions they had in England no longer existed. The main characters in American romantic novels tended to be haunted loners in ominous situations. Some of the novels were really horror stories, and many novels were filled with heavy symbolic imagery that was intended to convey a philosophy or indirect statement of purpose. Although gothic novels in both countries had a tendency toward horror, mystery, and the supernatural, there was an absence of romance in American romantic novels, unlike the gothic
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Approximate Word count = 1445
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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