America is commonly known as the melting pot, a blend of all ethnicities and beliefs in a nation that is declared free. When the revolution had ended and the dust had cleared America was settled as a country where all citizens, including writers, were entitled to their freedom of opinion, speech, and press. Without the reigning terror of the British Monarchy the brilliant minds of America built up a nation that would be known world-wide as the “land of the free and the home of the brave” where new opportunities were awaiting those who had the ability to access it. American literature was the creation of the leaders of this new country and it was carried out by every generation after them adapting with the changing times. Modernism time period …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald is another story written during the lost generation. The story follows Benjamin Button, a man who was born into the body of a seventy-year old man and aged backwards dying in the body of a newborn baby. Benjamin Button’s father reveals the theme of decadence when he refuses to admit that his first son was born abnormally because it would hurt his social status, not because of his son’s well-being. Benjamin Button’s own son shows this same frivolous nature when Benjamin asks his son to enroll him into school, “‘And another thing,’ continued Roscoe, ‘when visitors are in the house I want you to call me 'Uncle'—not 'Roscoe,' but 'Uncle,' do you understand? It looks absurd for a boy of fifteen to call me by my first name. Perhaps you'd better call me 'Uncle' all the time, so you'll get used to it’”(24). The defining characteristic of a lack of faith in masculinity is exhibited when Benjamin Button is taken as a joke when he decides to re-enlist in the army around the age of fifty-five but in the body of a fifteen year old boy. Following this incident he reminiscents on his time in the war when he was happiest, an idealised …show more content…
It is later revealed that Merrill is unable to remember the unpleasant details of his life including the loss of his house and family due to financial instability. Merrill sees the issue with materialism when Grace Biswanger and the bartender at her party are hateful towards Merrill because he is not wealthy. He also remarks that Biswanger is boring for only conversing about wealth, “She was always talking about money. It was worse than eating your peas off a knife”(1185). The decision to swim across the county instead of taking a shorter route to arrive home shows Merrills spirit of recklessness. Cheever attempts to portray real emotion through the thoughts of Merrill as he discovers the imperfect details of his life that he forgot, like the surgery of one of his best friends and the loss of his house, wife, and