Why are John Cheever's stories 'uniquely American'? What would make a story uniquely British?

John Cheever’s writing has been described as ‘uniquely American’. But what does this mean? It could be referring to the use of American English or Americanisms or maybe the presence of the ‘American Dream’ within Cheever’s short stories.  An example would be O City of Broken Dreams, the Malloy family choose to leave everything they know behind and move to New York so that Mr Malloy can try and make it as a script writer. Although obstacle after obstacle is placed before them, they still believe that it is possible for them to achieve their dream.

So if the ‘American Dream’ often features within American literature what makes a text uniquely British? I believe class is an element that English authors integrate in to their stories. Whether it is a key element such as in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in which it triggers conflict between suitors or creatively interpreted, such as in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, where it is shown through the distinction of ‘pure blood’ and ‘mud-blood’. Class can define a character, or be used as an issue the character has to overcome or defy, for example Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist where Oliver is rescued from the poverty he is born into.

Whether class is the catalyst for the story or hidden within the text, maybe its presence is simply highlighting our own dream; to fulfill our potential, to overcome the barriers placed before us and to prove that we can surpass our origins, entitling our self to self-worth.