Daisy Miller & Huck Finn- American Adventures

6 Pages 1483 Words

NOSEWAKS@aOl.com March 20, 2002

DAISY MILLER AND HUCK FINN-AMERICAN ADVENTURERS

After reading the two American classics “Daisy Miller” by Henry James, and “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, I thought about the messages these authors were saying about their societies. Both authors lived at a time when very influential things were happening in their worlds. The Civil War, and the ceaseless turmoil between social classes. Twain and James both wrote these two stories around the same period. Like everyone, they were influenced by their surroundings and personal experiences. Although they were both very different people with completely different backgrounds, they both managed to have leading characters that had the common problem of not fitting in their societies. Although James’ Daisy Miller and Twain’s Huck had a common problem, they both had very different ways of coping with it. They both had different strategies of living in an environment they didn’t completely control.
Henry James had the very plain Miller family traveling throughout Europe at a time when many people in the world were immigrating to the Unites States. Her family was wealthy enough to pay for such a trip where she was able to stay at the most extravagant hotels in Europe. James makes it clear numerous times that the Miller family was new to this level of money. While Daisy stayed in these hotels she had a chance to see what the people of her new status were like. Coming from a background that was not as fortunate as the people she stayed with in Europe, she wanted what she couldn’t have had. She wanted to be part of the privileged society. In Europe, James has her finally getting what she wanted- the ability to interact with societies upper class. Daisy’s flaw was that she had the tool to be with the 1900th century aristocrats (money), but she didn’t have the culture to pass as one. This is a tragic conflict for her....