“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

Ernest Hemingway proclaimed, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

If this one novel is indeed the “source” of all American literature, then it must be representative, indeed a paradigm, of all that comes after it, If so, then it must incorporate every major theme in all of American literature.

With that being said, your first essay will argue how the novel incorporates the following themes:

The Journey from Innocence to Awareness

The American Dream

The Land and the Frontier

The Hero

Community

For each theme, you should use specific textual evidence to argue your point. In addition, comment on the role each theme plays in the novel or on what the novel reveals about each theme. Now is the time that completed chart will come in handy! For a review on incorporating textual evidence, see the following links in Course Resources:

Textual Evidence in a Response to Literature
Annoying Ways People Use Sources
MLA Works Cited Page for Books (for your textbook, use “Work in an Anthology”)