Best American Essays

January 03, 2014 - Posted to American Essay

Best American essays

A student from America should be dreaming of getting into the history as among the writers of the best American essays. What they forget is the homework they have to do to achieve that title. With a dedicated effort, discipline and determination it is very easy to achieve your dream. Just like the writers who appear on the best American essays of the century.

Here is a list of the best American essay writers.

“Notes of a native son”

An essay written by an American named James Baldwin. The writer was inspired by his violent historical background. He lived with the father, they had a troubled relationship. This led him to explore his awareness and address his black culture. This essay was based on his personal experience as a black citizen. Currently the essay applies to the aspect of racial discrimination that people face today. One aspect to use when writing an essay is to basically make it personal just like James Baldwin did. Use this to address issues that people fail to put across while they affect them daily.

“The white negro”

This essay was written by Norman Mailer. Mailer used hyperbolic dialectics and metaphysics throughout the essay. He used the concept of hipster throughout his essays.

“Notes on “camp”

This essay was written by Susan Sontag. Susan used this essay to define a sense of modern sensibility. The modern dressing trends including glamorous, hot and elegant compared to the past way of dressing. Through the essay he explains the level of exaggeration that has been attached to the modern life.

“The search of Marvin gardens”

Written by John McPhee, “The search for Marvin gardens” revolves around board games. In the essay he uses Atlanta as the famous town that inspired America’s popular board games. The essay gives a picture of how he ends up in jail .he demonstrates how life has changed and is not the simple life that was there a while back. Finally he finds the Marvin gardens hoping that things will change.

“The white album”

This essay was written by Joan Didion. This is a personal essay explaining her psychiatric tests as an outpatient in the Santa Monica hospital. The story begins on a good note and an interesting hook. It is just an essay you need to read.

“Total eclipse”

Written by Annie Dillard, this is an essay that can be a poem or a short story if you make it. Through the essay she addresses the climatic intensity of short fiction, poetic imagery and the level of personality an essay can get to.

“Against joie di vivre”

In this essay, Philip lopate shows how personal essays can be and not so boring. An essay presents a witty nature, conversational, reflective, confessional and most important worth reading.

“Heaven and nature”

An essay written is Edward Hoagland. The s essay shows him at his best and how he is balancing the private and public.

“The fourth state of matter”

An essay written by Jo Anne Beard, it is not based on fiction but a true life event the story focuses on a graduate student murderous rampage at the University of Iowa.

“Consider the lobster”

This is an essay written by David Foster Wallace. What does the word lobster suggest? Basically an essay on cooking and lobster being on the menu.

Read the following essays and learn to develop you own god essay. You might be the next writer to fall in this category.