October 12-13, 2013: Crowd-sourced Falls

[As the leaf-peeping begins in earnest (seriously, that’s a thing we do here in New England), this week’s series has focused on some iconic American images of the loss of innocence that we so often associate with autumn. This crowd-sourced post is harvested from fellow AmericanStudier’s connections to falls, seasonal or symbolic. Add yours, pumpkin!]
Rachael McLennan also “went straight to Roth’s American Pastoral,” as I did in Tuesday’s post.Dan Sheppard follows up Wednesday’s post, writing, “Two groups of kids in literature have always represented the fall season for me, most likely because I have fond memories of exploring the neighborhood during the beginning months of school, in the fall, as a child with my friends. Coincidentally, one group of them being the kids you mentioned from The Body, the other being a similar group of boys in a much more paranormal situation in It . I think the parallels between them regarding a loss of innocence are relatively clear. The situations they encounter are wildly different, but both involve them dealing with as you put, perilous situations, not only of the physical realm, but of the mental realm. How are young people expected to cope with what they're seeing in these stories? It is a total loss of innocence, regardless of the completely unreal events of one story. So while the loss of innocence is more predominant in a literature sense, the feeling of a close knit group of friends literally reminds me of the fall months. I'm enjoying this group of postings solely based on that, it's a deep look something I always looked at so simply.”Rebecca Carpenter highlights J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories, and particularly “A Perfect Day for Bananafish.”Josh Eyler highlights The Wonder Years , and in particular how that show “mirrors Kevin’s life with American events” and in its duality between innocence and experience “might have been a bit ahead of its time in terms of complexity.”Joseph Fruscione agrees with Josh, and also mentions “ Huckleberry Finn —both a sense of innocence and greater sense of experience.”Next series starts Monday,BenPS. What images of fall would you share?