English 015 - Americans Abroad
"Different" Americans
"Different" Americans
Category: 01B: Daisy Miller | Ross Stern
After examining selections from both Mark Twain’s Americans Abroad and Henry James’s Daisy Miller, it appears that both writers must have had very different experiences in their travels around the world. While neither of the men disagree on the beauty of many foreign lands, their depiction of the American attitude in foreign countries differs greatly. In simplest terms, Twain describes Americans rejecting their heritage, while James paints an image of Americans preserving it.
Twain portrays American travelers as “consummate ass[es]” attempting to abandon their culture in hopes of inheriting a more prestigious one in a foreign land. He describes Americans abroad in Italy who have, “actually forgotten their mother tongue in three months” (165). Twain frowns upon this behavior but admits to participating in similar activities on occasion. Americans Abroad suggests that most Americans find foreign cultures more attractive than their own, and will reject their American upbringing in hopes of gaining “sophistication” in a foreign country.
On the contrary, James depicts Americans attempting to preserve “the American way” in foreign countries. James’s beliefs are immediately evident when he describes Vevey through the month of June: “ Vevey assumes…some of the characteristics of an American watering-place. There are sights and sounds that evoke a vision, an echo, of Newport and Saratoga” (3). Here, Americans transform a foreign place instead of conforming to it. The Americans in Daisy Miller take pride in their country, customs, and refuse to surrender their American ways.
Posted by on September 15, 2003 at 01:21 PM