The Second World War has drastically changed the course of life. After it ended, it took people years to fully comprehend what has happened and how this event has shaped their future. Obviously, the world of literature could not remain unaffected. The themes and motifs dwelt upon in books after the Second World War have changed a lot, no matter the country in question. Thus, American literature has changed as well. If you are currently researching this topic for your school project and don’t want to pay someone to do my homework online, keep reading as you will come across a lot of useful information in this article. There’s a lot to cover. Yet, the most significant aspects will be presented in detail. So, here are the most important aspects and shifts in American literature after World War II.

Realism and metafiction

Realistic novels have become a thing after the Second World War because of the events the authors of these books got to witness. As a result, writing about what’s actually happening instead of imagining the plot of the book has become very common. After the bombing of Hiroshima, the fear, as well as the realization of devastation caused by the bombing has influenced the plots of the upcoming books of those times. You can see the manifestation of these themes, as well as a detailed description of the atrocities of war in Joseph Heller’s ‘Catch-22’. Yet, the author also manages to incorporate some black comedy elements to make the story a bit satirical. Another vital aspect to mention is the mockery of military mentality. The reason for that is quite obvious – everyone got very tired of war and the people who represent it. In this case, it’s the military who have become the centre of the mockery.

Another great example of the transformation of American literature after World War II is ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ by Kurt Vonnegut. The plot of this book focuses on the bombing of Dresden using a mixture of numb humor and dark fantasy. What is vital to mention is that combining absurd fantasies and dark humor has become a feature of many American writers after the Second World War and after the bombing of Hiroshima.

Southern fiction

Southern fiction after World War II is mostly represented by women including Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty and Carson McMullers who are considered to be experts in the grotesque genre. O’Connor focused on depicting moral incongruity in her short stories while Welty has risen to fame due to being an exceptional master of mixing different genres and styles in her short fiction. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for her novella ‘The Optimist’s Daughter’. What is important to mention in regards to Southern fiction is that lots of authors are clearly influenced by William Faulkner and his style which is not a bad thing at all. There is a lot to learn from him, so it’s great that his works have managed to inspire a whole generation of new writers even after the aftermath of World War II.

African American literature

After the Second World War, depicting anger and social protest has become a distinctive feature of African American literature. Richard Wright rose to fame and many new writers tried to follow his steps. Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin, who were proteges of Richard Wright, decided to focus on writing polemical essays. In these essays, they would talk about the importance of representation, as well as the complexity of Black lives. The idea was to write works in which Black people and their problems are talked about. Devoting enough time to the conversation about Black lives meant acknowledging their contribution to society. For instance, Ralph Ellison used realism in his works to demonstrate the full scale of sacrifice and the complexity of being an African American in the United States during those times. In his novels he focused on such issues as segregated education, the effect of World War II on the life of African Americans, as well as their role in this war, ghetto hustling, the ideology of nationalism and rural sharecropping. His novel ‘Invisible Man’ is considered to be one of the best and one of the most important ones in postwar world literature.