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“As Wide As The World”: Examining And Overcoming American Neo-Imperialism In Three Novels, Lindsey A. Becker

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

This paper demonstrates the connection between multi-cultural literature and international relations through the analysis of three late twenty-first century novels and their interaction with global politics, specifically following World War II. Within the context of the Cold War, the United States pursued control over foreign nations in order to contain communism, a desire that pushed the US to become a global superpower and a neo-imperialist state. I assert that Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony (1977), Paul Theroux’s The Mosquito Coast (1981), and Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible (1998) discuss and critique American neo-imperialism. Kingsolver’s key contribution to our understanding of neo-imperialism …