The “Search for Happiness” Motif in American Literature

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the motif of the search for happiness as one of the recurring ideational and thematic complexes in American literature from the 17th to the 21st century. Using the methods of historical-cultural and motif analysis, the study traces its transformation across key periods in the development of the national literary tradition: from Puritan colonial writings, through the literature of the Enlightenment, 19th-century Romanticism and Realism, Modernism of the early 20th century, to contemporary prose. The study demonstrates how the paradigm of happiness shifts from religiously deterministic notions (divine providence, grace) to anthropocentric concepts of individual self-improvement, moral duty, material success, and, subsequently, to existential searches for meaning, personal self-fulfillment. Particular emphasis is placed on the dialectical connection of this motif with the mythologeme of the “American Dream,” which serves simultaneously as an impetus and a source of tragic illusion for the characters. Based on works by W. Bradford, B. Franklin, N. Hawthorne, M. Twain, T. Dreiser, F. S. Fitzgerald, T. Capote, N. Sparks, and other authors, the article identifies stable narrative and semantic models for representing happiness, allowing it to be considered as a constant reflecting fundamental socio-cultural and philosophical shifts in American social consciousness.