Reflection about Daisy Miller

After reading Daisy Miller I decided to expose my opinion about it answering the following questions:

1. Is Daisy Miller a tourist or a traveler? Explain your definition of these terms and select 2 quotes to support your answer. How do these quote support your analysis? 



            I think Daisy Miller is a character hard to identify as tourist or traveler, because she is kind of a pretty changeable person. Despite that, I consider Daisy Miller as a tourist. For me, a traveler is a person who immerses himself/herself in the local culture and tries to explore what the country really is, not only the major cities or the popular ones. On the other hand, a tourist is a person who tends to stay in his/her comfort zone; he/she speaks his/her first language instead of trying to learn the local language and he/she doesn’t care about interacting with local culture and people.

"Are you—a—going over the Simplon?" Winterbourne pursued, a little embarrassed.

"I don't know," she said. "I suppose it's some mountain. Randolph, what mountain are we going over?"

This quote is from the first part of the book, when Winterbourne is talking with Daisy and Randolph and he asked about the place they were going to visit. Daisy Miller’s answer made me think about her as a tourist, because she didn’t even know the name of the place she was going to and she didn’t care about knowing what the name was. Another quote I found and I think it may support my idea of Daisy Miller as a tourist, is this one:

“I told her I had never been in so many hotels in my life as since I came to Europe. I have never seen so many—it's nothing but hotels.”

This is Daisy Miller’s answer when Miss Featherstone asked her about the hotels in America. In my opinion a hotel doesn’t represent how a local house is or how a culture is, so when someone is staying in a hotel I don’t think is interacting with the local culture of the place. These quotes helped me identify Daisy Miller as a tourist, because she showed herself as a girl who just wanted to have fun during her stays.

2. Locate 3 incidences of Othering between the characters. Explain each.

“He immediately perceived, from her tone, that Miss Daisy Miller's place in the social scale was low. "I am afraid you don't approve of them," he said.

"They are very common," Mrs. Costello declared. "They are the sort of Americans that one does one's duty by not—not accepting."”

            This quote is from the conversation of Winterbourne and Mrs. Costello, when they were talking about Daisy Miller. I think this quote is a good example of othering, because we can see how Mrs. Costello judged Daisy Miller. Mrs. Costello considers Daisy “very common” and because of that she thinks Daisy is from low social scale. This is an example of othering because one person is judging other person based in appearances and her perception.

"Oh, blazes; it's har-r-d!" he exclaimed, pronouncing the adjective in a peculiar manner.

Winterbourne had immediately perceived that he might have the honor of claiming him as a fellow countryman.”

I think this quote is kind of neutral othering, because despite it is a stereotype, it is not a bad one. In this part of the book Winterbourne is talking with Randolph, when he hears him pronouncing a word in a particular way. Winterbourne thought Randolph was an American boy just because the way he pronounced one word. Despite I don’t think it is bad, I think it is anyways a way of othering, because I don’t think to categorize someone according the way he/she pronounces always works.

“Winterbourne looked along the path and saw a beautiful young lady advancing. "American girls are the best girls," he said cheerfully to his young companion.”

            This quote is from Winterbourne and Randolph’s conversation, when Winterbourne looks at Daisy Miller and describes her as a beautiful young lady. I think this part is an example of othering, because Winterbourne generalizes all the American ladies based on Daisy Miller. In my opinion, he generalized how American girls are referring to their physical beauty; therefore I think he made a very extreme conclusion of a very subjective theme.

3. Analyze how the characters' perspective is shaped by the society found in the novels. Use examples from the novel to explain your points.

            In my opinion this novel portrays three principal ways of think: American, European and American/European. The American way of think represent by Daisy Miller, the European by Mrs. Walker and the American/ European by Winterbourne. In the novel Daisy Miller is presented as an open minded beautiful young girl, while Mrs. Walker is the type of person with a more conservative way of think. At the first part of the novel Daisy Miller talked to Winterbourne about the Chateau de Chillon, when she accepted to visit it with Winterbourne. “She didn't rise, blushing, as a young girl at Geneva would have done…”, this is the way in which Daisy Miller is described, when she ask Winterbourne to go to Chateau de Chillon with her. With this comparison, I think is demonstrated the freer way of think of American girls, represented by Daisy Miller. On the other hand, we can see how Mrs. Walker considers Daisy Miller’s behave as an incorrect one. "It is really too dreadful… That girl must not do this sort of thing. She must not walk here with you two men. Fifty people have noticed her." This was the reaction of Mrs. Walker when she saw Daisy Miller walking with Winterbourne and Mr. Giovanelli. I think this reaction demonstrate the conservative way of think of European people, in this case Mrs. Walker, toward a situation that for an American person is kind a normal behave. However, who I think is the most interesting character in this novel is Winterbourne, because during the novel he is in an “in between” position. For me, his way of think is in he middle of both extremes ways of think, Daisy Miller and Mrs. Walker. This “in between” way of think, I think could be a characteristic of his hybridity of cultures (American and European). Through the novel, Winterbourne doesn’t know if Daisy Miller’s behave is consequence of her “innocent” or her “free spirit”. I think this Winterbourne debate about Daisy Miller’s behave, is because the “fight” between his both positions, American and European way of think.

This is a picture of Le Chateu de Chillon (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)