Coming of Age in American Literature

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Americans have lost their innocence. In the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and in the Middle East, Americans have proven their selves on the field of battle, learning to overcome their fears while being disillusioned by them.
For the typical American, we usually take a while longer to mature since we have it much better off than most people. As children, we’re quite sheltered. It usually isn’t until we graduate high school or get out of college that we mature by default, because the world begins to force us into independence, whether we like it or not. In high school there aren’t any real consequences to our actions, but when we get an actual job our actions make the difference between having food on the table and starving, living on the streets and having a roof over your head. We begin to realize how hard life can be. We begin to toil and struggle. Even literature reflects this.
We begin to question who our friends are, we look back on the past with nostalgia, and to the future ...

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