What I think about when I hear “American Literature”

When I hear “American Literature” I think of stories and novels that tell about our history. Stories of what it was like to grow up in America, or coming to America for the first time. Basically to me when I think about it, it’s like a timeline of America, stories dating back to the early America and colonial times, to revolutionary all the way to modern  times. Even though all American literature may not be non-fiction, most stories have some insight to the truth and tell us about what it was like in America. Also typically when you read American literature a lot of stories are about living the American Dream. American literature a lot of times is about the wars we as a country have been through and peoples personal experiences with them. Or about different nationalities coming to America or growing up here. Their hardships and struggles with jobs along with the good times. Some examples of what I believe would be considered American Literature are How to Kill A Mockingbird, A Streetcar Named Desire, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,Moby Dick, Little Women,Ethan Frome etc. A few of these novels I have read in my English classes in highschool. There are so many novels in American Literature that the list could go on and on. Also many of the great novels of American Literature have become movies. Some examples are Wizard of Oz, Secret Garden, Call of The Wind, The Last of the Mohicans, Little Women, etc.