This exploration of the ways in which pregnancy affects narrative begins with two canonical American texts, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1848) and Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). Relying on such diverse works as Frankenstein, Peyton Place, Beloved , and I Love Lucy , the book chronicles how pregnancy evolves from a conventional plot device into a mature narrative form. Especially in the 20th and 21st centuries, the pregnancy narrative in fiction and film acts as a lightning rod with the power to electrify all genres of fiction and film, from early melodrama ( Way Down East ) to noir ( Leave Her to Heaven ); from horror ( Rosemary's Baby ) to science fiction and dystopia ( Alien, The Handmaid's Tale ); and from iconic ( Lolita ) to independent ( Juno, Precious ). Ultimately, the pregnancy narrative in popular film and fiction provides a remarkably clear lens by which we can gauge how popular American film and fiction express our most profound--and most private--fears, values and hopes.