The Watergate scandal in the early 1970’s was one of the worst political scandals in American history; not just because of the Nixon administration’s dirty tricks and phone tapping, but also because of their extensive and humiliating attempts to cover it up. Nixon’s refusal to present evidence to the federal investigators also violated the Constitution of the United States and led to an impeachment process against the president. The investigation uncovered a number of abuses of power committed by President Nixon and members of his administration including some of his top officials. Although Nixon resigned before he could be impeached, his mistakes and continuous efforts to cover them up created a great distrust in government among the American public.

The media also played an essential role in the uncovering of this scandal. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were the first people to discover that the break-ins at the DNC were connected to the White House. They were receiving information from an anonymous source who was later revealed to be Mark Felt, the director of the FBI at the time. This information and their ability to distribute it to the American public brought a great deal of attention to the break-ins that were previously brushed under the rug. This media attention is what sparked the federal investigation into the break-ins.

The book Watergate: A Novel by Thomas Mallon gives an accurate representation of the scandal and Nixon’s many attempts to cover it up. In this novel, Mallon adds some fictional characters and storylines to the reality of the scandal. He does this in order scandal to show that the president and high-up officials are only human. He wanted to show that they were only men and that they too could make mistakes, but at a much higher cost than most Americans. Mallon’s presentation of the Watergate scandal shows how vulnerable our government can be with the wrong people in power. He shows that even these highly intelligent government officials can get caught up in preserving their own personal well-being instead of trying to do what’s best for their country.

Native Son was a novel written in 1940 by Richard Wright about a young African American man, Bigger Thomas, who was living with his family in extreme poverty in the South Side of Chicago during the 1930’s. Bigger commits two horrible crimes in this story and is eventually caught by the police and put on trial. Jan, the communist boyfriend of Mary Dalton, whom Bigger murdered, visits Bigger in jail and suggests that he use the help of his lawyer, Boris Max. Max helps Bigger realize and understand his place in the world and his relationship with his family. Bigger realizes that he has lived his life through fear and anger without meaning. He starts to understand that he has the ability to live a meaningful life and he reevaluates his outlook on white people because of how accepting Jan and Boris Max are.

Boris Max defends Bigger by making the case that it was Bigger’s destiny to be a failed human because of the racist oppression that he has experienced since birth. He argues that Bigger along with any other African Americans are simply products of the society that molded them and consistently told them who and what they were going to be since the day they were born. The economic and social oppression against blacks at the time gave men like Bigger no choice but to provide for himself and his family through crime. The only real jobs that they could get were serving the wealthy whites which only perpetuated the cycle of oppression. Boris says that they cannot sentence Bigger to death if they do not even consider him a human being in the first place. However, Bigger is still found guilty and sentenced to death.

Richard Wright was trying to show the effects that racism and social and economic oppression had on black communities in the 1930’s in America. He wanted to show how white racism forced African Americans into a distressed and dangerous mindset. This is what drives Bigger to accidentally kill Mary Dalton; he did not want to get caught in her bedroom so he put a pillow over her face to keep her quiet and accidentally suffocated her. Wright also shows how the media played a role in this cycle of racism and black oppression. When Bigger goes to the movies, the white people are portrayed as sophisticated and wealthy while the blacks are depicted as brutish savages. These racist reinforcements in the media made African Americans more likely to act in violence and animosity because that is how they were expected to act according to social standards.

The Great Gatsby was a fictional novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby, living in Long Island during the roaring twenties. The story was published in 1925 and it accurately portrays the time period in New York City and Long Island including the extreme wealth that was evident during this time for some people. It is a story that depicts the American dream during the Jazz Age as Jay Gatsby hosts immaculate parties to draw in the woman of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan. Although it is a fictional narrative, it presents a very precise representation of the suburbs of New York City in 1920’s America which were marked with tremendous economic affluence and the development of new life changing technologies like automobiles, broadcast radio, movies, recorded music, and even organized crime which became a mass culture.

The story takes place in the fictional town of West Egg in Long Island where Nick Carraway moves into a small house next to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby knows that Nick is the cousin of his one true love, Daisy Buchanan, and therefore befriends him by inviting him to one of his extravagant parties. Gatsby throws these wildly luxurious parties in hopes that Daisy will one day show up and see how wealthy and powerful he is. Eventually he becomes close with Nick and gets him to set up a meeting between himself and Daisy. They have an affair over the summer, but Daisy’s husband Tom finds out. Although Tom is having and affair himself, he is outraged by Daisy’s actions and confronts Gatsby at a hotel in New York City. Tom also informs his wife that Gatsby’s fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol which was illegal because of the prohibition placed on the substance at the time. In the end, Gatsby and Daisy get into a serious car crash with Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, who was driving the other car. Myrtle’s husband believes that the person driving the other car was Myrtle’s secret lover and he finds out that Gatsby was the driver. He therefore shoots and kills Gatsby and them kills himself with the same gun.

Nick holds a funeral for Gatsby but none of his associates show up, not even the hundreds of people who attended his luxurious parties for years. This shows that wealth and power had no real meaning and that Gatsby was truly alone throughout the whole novel. He held all of his parties in hopes that Daisy would eventually show up and immediately be impressed by his affluence, even though he knew she was married. He didn’t care about any of the other guests which showed that although he had such immense wealth, he was sad and alone the entire time. He also had made his entire fortune illegally which forced him to hide major parts of his identity from those closest to him. Fitzgerald purposely portrayed this time period as lacking in moral values to show that the American Dream had been corrupted. He showed the greed and craving for money and pleasure which became the main goal of this generation of Americans. These young men had just fought in World War 1 and had experienced a great deal of trauma which disoriented their sense of morality. Many of these men generated great wealth for themselves with the rise of the stock market as well as illegal ventures like bootlegging and indulged in this newfound materialism.

In the novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy the main character Julian West is a young Bostonian living in the year 1887. One night he falls asleep with the help of Doctor Pillsbury’s hypnosis and he is put into a deep coma. When he eventually awakes, it is 113 years later in the year 2000 and America has become a socialist Utopia. Julian is confused but a man named Doctor Leete helps show him around the new world he has unexpectedly entered and explains to him all of the changes that have taken place over the last century. Work hours have been reduced considerably, goods are delivered almost instantly, everyone retires with incredible benefits at the age of 45, and all of the goods within the society are distributed equally among the citizens.

This novel was published in 1888 during a long economic and social depression in America which lasted about two decades. There was a chain of recessions throughout the 1880’s which sparked the beginning of organized labor unions and worker strikes including the Haymarket affair in 1886. American capitalism was filled with monopolies which exploited desperate workers for cheap labor because of the influx of European immigrants who were willing to work for low wages. The novel does not directly discuss the American economy in this new utopia nor does it ever specifically talk about socialism. However, it indirectly provides a social commentary on the depression in the late 19^th century by contrasting it with this socialist utopia. In this sense, Bellamy was suggesting that socialism was the solution to the economic difficulties during his lifetime in America. The book created a widespread movement in the 1890s for which called for the the nationalization of private property. This political movement became known as Nationalism and it pushed for the implementation of socialism in the United States.

Although The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel, it focuses mainly on the internal experience of the main character rather than the exterior war around him. The protagonist, Henry Fleming, enlists in the American Civil War for the Union Army but flees from his first battle for fear of his own life. At first, he feels a great sense of unity and strength from the amount of men who are in his regiment, but during his first combat experience he flees because he thinks about his own individual safety. Henry enlisted in this war because he wanted to be a part of something bigger and more important than himself. His decision to flee left him feeling cowardly, humiliated, and even jealous of the men who held their ranks and received battle wounds in the fight. After fleeing, he runs into a group of wounded soldiers, one of whom is described as “tattered” asks Henry where he is injured. Henry avoids the question but this makes him feel even more guilty about leaving his comrades mid battle. Henry leaves these men and finds a group of soldiers retreating. During this retreat, Henry is accidentally hit on the head with a rifle and injured. Eventually, he finds his way back to his regiment expecting to be shamed. However, the soldiers think his injury is from a bullet graze and so they treat his wound instead of calling him a deserter. This gives him a second chance and in his final battle he proves himself to be a valuable soldier. He takes on the role of the flag-bearer after his Sergeant dies. Henry faces his fears and becomes a hero when he leads a charge against the Confederates while completely unarmed. The Confederates retreat and Henry’s newfound bravery makes him a hero. This story is about Henry’s trials and tribulations that allowed him to develop into a hero.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist novel that was written a decade before the Civil War and influenced many Americans. The main theme of the novel is slavery as it follows the life of Uncle Tom, an old African American slave who is extremely loyal to his masters. Tom is treated kindly and never beaten physically at either the Shelby’s or the St. Clares’ residences. Stowe purposely shows positive relationships between Tom and his masters to highlight the fact that even when you treat a slave kindly, you are still morally corrupt. Although Shelby and St. Clare both treat him with kindness and respect, their capacity to tolerate slavery at all makes them ethically weak and unjust. Stowe also shows how slaves still suffered even under kind masters like these when Shelby sells Tom off, forcing him to leave his family behind. Stowe wanted to defuse the argument that slavery could be justified if the masters treated the slaves kindly. She is trying to prove that the way you treat the slaves doesn’t matter because the entire institution of slavery is unjust. She argues that the only way to act in a slave’s best interest is by freeing them. At the end of the book she also shows the harsh reality of how bad slavery can be by taking us to the Legree plantation. Here she shows everything that is wrong with slavery including sexual abuse, brutal beatings, and even killing. Stowe’s novel had a strong influence on the Civil War and was extremely powerful for the abolitionist movement at the time.

James Fenimore Cooper makes Indians seem like they are equal to the English settlers in his novel The Pioneers. The main character Natty Bummpo, or “Leatherstocking” is a white American who lives in the wilderness and is good friends with a number of Indians. His closest friend is a Mohican Indian, Chingachgook, which was very unusual at this time. Cooper uses this character, Natty Bummpo, to emphazise the importance of respecting all kinds of people and the land as well. He distrusts civilization and has a very strong bond with the Indians. Cooper was trying to expose the problems with American society in the early 1800s especially the mistreatment of Indians and the environment. Cooper created the character Leatherstocking by making him relatable to the Indians in order to show people that Indians are humans too. Leatherstocking was also very heroic as he saved Elizabeth’s life by killing a mountain lion. He also saves Elizabeth from a forest fire later on in the novel. He is very well respected by the Indians because he treats them as equals and shares their passionate reverence for nature. I think Cooper’s purpose in writing this novel was to show that there are white American men who live just like just like the Indians but are by no means savages. He portrays them as kind, heroic, and respectful to make the audience realize that Indians could also possess these characteristics.