One of the best examples of this is Walden by Henry David Thoreau, which was a treatise on how the author lived in a cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts (Foster 50 ). Another story of people exploring the wilderness is set several decades after Thoreau's memoir, in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain's tale was not only about childhood freedom, but also an exploration of what freedom means in a world ruled by flawed characters (101). The last novel that we can use in American literature to highlight the salient points of achieving a pure lifestyle is The Great Gatsby. Aside from his lavish lifestyle, the novel's main character, Jay Gatsby, can illustrate how planning your future and actually achieving it are two very different things. At the end of the classic story Gatsby ends up dead for his efforts while the narrator for most of the book, Nick Carraway, has the chance to learn the lessons of living too fast from him (144). All of these books show that slowing down and enjoying our surroundings every day (including our family, friends, and nature) leads to a fulfilling place and the belief that fiction can imitate real-life subjects (Aristotle 5; ch...