How have American coming of age novels and films differed between the 19th and 21st centuries to embody evolving conceptions of Americanism?

Since the nineteenth century, coming of age stories by American authors have represented an evolving view of Americanism. From Little Women in 18xx to Lady Bird in 2017, this genre of media has followed trends in American ideals to illustrate popular values at the time of publishing. By examining voices in coming of age stories, we can track the development of Americanism from it’s pioneer and Puritan roots, to the destruction of the American Dream. We can trace patterns in media published between then to evaluate the reasons behind this transformation such as contradiction of values, roots of oppression, and lack of inclusion. Ultimately, it can be concluded that the portrayal of evolving mainstream Americanism in coming of age media highlights how the exclusionary roots of the American dream ultimately caused its demise.