Just around the Riverbend

     We began today with Henry James. A man who watched major events from the sidelines, James was mostly interested in writing about the psychology of characters. He was a realist and an observer, as we can easily see in his novella, Daisy Miller.

     The literary movements that we discussed (American romanticism, realism, modernism, and naturalism) brought up a question in my mind: what is the style of today? Because of traumatic events like the Civil War or the World Wars, people ended up craving realism instead of the fantastical. What do literary audiences crave today? 

     Jumping back to Daisy Miller, one of the most interesting ideas we touched on was Winterbourne's insecurity. In the passage that we read closely, Winterbourne felt as if he was going on daring adventure, as if he and Miss Miller were escaping from society or at least breaking some social norm by being together without anyone else from their social circle. Society, society, society. With Winterbourne, everything seems to relate to society. He worries that Daisy will embarrass him in front of others while they are out on the boat, so he had wanted to go in a private carriage with her. He takes pride in the fact that people are looking at Daisy and noticing her "distinguished air." 

   I will finish with a small random tidbit I thought up. Daisy is described as garrulous (she gives a "charming garrulity"), which means talkative... so I guess you could say it's almost like babbling. And someone (I believe it was Lauryn) asserted that Daisy's personality was almost like water... so perhaps she is almost like a babbling brook. Like flowing water, she is always changing, refreshing, and at times a little mysterious  (cue music for Just Around the River Bend ♬♩). 

And I just had to look up the lyrics for it... 

What I love most about rivers is:

You can't step in the same river twice

The water's always changing, always flowing (like Daisy)

But people, I guess, can't live like that

We all must pay a price

To be safe, we lose our chance of ever knowing

What's around the riverbend (like Winterbourne)

Waiting just around the riverbend. 

Just a thought. 

-Isabel Nygard