Literature and its Affect on Society All throughout American history, literature has played an important role in the shaping of the nation's culture and ideology. Having an extremely influential past, literature indirectly affects the television world that has swept over the minds of the baby boomers and their offspring. In a recent survey compiled by students at Glacier Bay High School, there were unanimous results that supported the fact that television was America's favorite form of entertainment, yet literature could possibly be the most beneficial. The roots of literary influence are imbedded in the very being of the na