which is truly the Great American Novel?

>>9972546
Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye are better contenders

Grapes of Wrath

>>9972550
Surely you jest. The latter belongs in the cringe of its own bin.

>>9972550
Catcher and the Rye is literal shit tier and Mark Twain writes like a Mongoloid

>>9972556
>>9972559
Have not read Catcher in the Eye yet, why is it so bad? I hear Faulkner loved it

Objectively, it's Moby because it made it into the Great Books series.

>>9972565
All the cool kids hate it now. Buncha phonies.

>>9972565
its literally 300 pages of a kid complaining

>>9972552
Literally Communist propaganda.

>>9972565
It's awkward teen angst lit and the MC makes you want to reach through the page and punch him. Written by a jew too so it's pushed for reasons outside of merit, mainly to glorify youth rebellion and degeneracy.

>>9972556
this post made me cringe
>jest

>>9972565

Faulker and Beckett loved Catcher. It's really an amazing little book but it's also so popular it pisses off those who think liking obscure things makes them feel superior

Nobody ever mentions either Henry James or Edith Wharton in this respect. Perhaps there is something decidedly un-American about them? We are not, I assume, deciding the question purely on aesthetic merits but on the ability to capture most eloquently the American spirit or character. I'd honestly say The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is the quintessential American. A new comer, an upstart, and a sentimental romantic.

>>9972546
Gatsby is the great American novel.
Dick is written by the great American novelist.
>>9972550
Those are important for American history, but aren't necessarily the greats. More 'essentials' to understanding USA's past clearly.

>>9972574
Don't fucking read Mockingjay, it was exactly that. First two books were fine, but I dropped that one.

The Great Gatsby is too wrapped up in the socioeconomic politics of its contemporaneity and Fitzgerald's own flatulence. The American culture of vapidity and excess that sprouted in the wake of The Great War like weeds upon a grave is irrelevant now, and won't become any more relevant anytime in the future. It was an examination and criticism of Fitzgerald's modernity, and is thus doomed to be remembered as little more than a footnote. It's less than a century old, and its influence wanes with every passing year. Even something like The Lord of the Rings will outlive it.

Moby Dick, on the other hand, has stood the test of time. It's over 150 years old, and is as relevant today as it was when it was written. The story's themes, characters and motifs have become ingrained into public consciousness and been incorporated into our language. Referring to something as a "white whale" or something as someone's personal "Moby Dick", is immediately understood by most people, even those that haven't read the book.

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(cough) I think you mean this

>>9972546
moby dick is better but the great gatsby is more american

i think to kill a mockingbird portrays america far better than any other book could do.

One of these books is a novel and the other is a novella.

>>9972584
>thinks that CitR glorifies youth rebellion and degeneracy

>>9972669
If you think Gatsby isn't relevant to modern US socioeconomics, you probably just don't spend a lot of time in rich neighborhoods. I live in San Francisco. Gatsby is alive and well.

>>9972669
Cont. Also, keep in mund that Gatsby isn't just about the wealthy set. I don't even think it's mainly about that, although I won't argue with other interpretations. I think it's mainly about the clash between narrative and reality. Gatsby's naive dreams vs what other people really wanted, for example. Te brute fact of physical frailty and death that money does not change. And so on. This theme alsi applies to society as a whole, of course.

>>9972546
Both are. There's no solid reason to pick one over the other. Another strong contender is On the Road.

>>9972584
>>9972574
>>9972556
>>9972559
Wow /lit/ really is lost to retarded ledditors.

>>9972975
t. awkward loser still driven by teen angst.

>>9972669
As long as racism stays in america, gatsby will manage to be relevant.

>>9972550
Catcher in the rye is unironically a contender. Masterful in its encapsulation of the American adolescent attitude, and that's a damn important thing to capture.

>>9972941
I live in the town that the book was based on, we milk that book for everything we can but we still have a segregated school, race relations are awful, there was a rape/murder case that took place here in the 90's and they blamed a black dude for it and went through with putting him on death row with very little evidence because Sheriff Tate (still our sheriff) didn't like him openly sleeping with a white woman and selling weed. This town is my own personal hell and having been homeless in New York before, that was a better experience than this.

>>9972992
>its about something I don't like so its bad
this is pathetic

>>9972574
And 12 Angry Men is an hour and a half of a couple guys talking

>>9973059
It's a shitty book for teenagers, dude. Are you trying to out yourself as a rule breaker when you click on the "I agree that I'm over 18" button to enter 4chan and shill for a kid's book?

>>9973095
>le im a mature adult now

die fag

>>9973095
lol retard

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>>9972546
The Horror at Camp Jellyjam

>>9973100
Aww, look at this angry little 14 year old. He wuves his Holden, doesn't he? Oh yes he does. Hope mommy folds your undies the way you like for school on Monday.

>>9973122
that black and white school one was legit scary on a whole another level.

>>9973125
>young little tighty troll think honey booboo baby baby gaga googoo is the ultimate heartyhearty booboo.

>>9972618
But to what extent is the spirit or character of a nation definable? What defines the German from the American or the Chinese? I'll take a stab at the problem and say it's best to look to the very founding of this country. We are a country of merchants. We are brash, uninhibited, and irreverent toward the traditional distinctions of aristocratic societies.

the bible

>>9972546

Gatsby is a bore. Dick is where it's at.

Through Dick, Unity.

I actually pulled the latter off my shelf and did the meme. Good fuck that first paragraph. What a fucking first paragraph. Holy fuck, that paragraph!