Innocence in Daisy Miller, My Antonia, and the Great...

Innocence in Daisy Miller by Henry James, My Antonia by Willa Cather and the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is not as easy as it seems to distinguish who is innocent and who is not. Innocence is a cultural concept which is usually confusing. An act that is naà ¯ve and normal in one society can be a public disgrace in another. Then a question comes to mind: What is innocence? Challenging the norms of a society makes a person totally wicked? What spoils or preserves innocence? The word innocence is ambiguous. It has double vision because people put different masks on their faces for different occasions. Innocence is also one of the themes that can be focused on three American novels: Daisy Miller by Henry James, My Antonia by†¦show more content†¦When Winterbourne meets her, she is dressed in white white which is also a sign of innocence. Her eyes reveals that she is an innocent, naà ¯ve girl but her acts talk different. She is blamed for being a flirt. Miss Miller and her family are accused of not acting in a moderate way. It is true that her parents neglect her. Her mother h as no control over her and her father is in somewhere in America. Europeans are those who try to belong to European culture. She easily goes out with different men. She says dinners are given for her by gentlemen in America and she is a terrible, frightful flirt. She talks to foreigners as if she know them for years. She is always self-confident and natural. While walking with Giovanelli, she does not try to get rid of Winterbourne. She just likes the companionship of men, to draw their attention on her. These are all strange for so-called sophisticated Europeans who like gossiping and labelling. One thing to bear in mind is that if somebody does something bad, s/he tries to do it in private, try to keep it as a secret. Miss Miller does not show any sign of embarrassment in her acts. In the book Also Spoke Zaustra Nietszche says that some people try to hide it but the dog called lust would grin in their eyes. Winterbourne says the young girls eyes were singularly honest and fresh. She also tells Winterbourne that she introduces her friends with her mother. If her intention was wicked, she would not do that.Show MoreRelatedEssay Prompts4057 Words   |  17 PagesFaustus Orlando Don Quixote A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man A Gesture Life Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Ghosts The Scarlet Letter Great Expectations Sister Carrie The Great Gatsby The Sound and Fury Gulliver’s Travels Sula Heart of Darkness The Sun Also Rises Invisible Man Their Eyes Were Watching God Joe Turner’s Come and Gone The Things They Carried King Lear The Turn of theRead MoreBrief Survey of American Literature3339 Words   |  14 PagesBrief Survey of American Literature 1. Beginnings to 1700 Great mixing of peoples from the whole Atlantic basin Bloody conflicts between Native Americans (or American Indians) and European explorers and settlers who had both religious and territorial aspirations - Native American oral literature / oral tradition - European explorers’ letters, diaries, reports, etc., such as Christopher Columbus’s letters about his voyage to the â€Å"New world†. - Anglo (New England) settlers’ books, sermons