Americans Innocence in Kate Chopins The Father of Desirees Baby and Henry Jamess Daisy Miller - Essay Example

A Comparative Analysis of the Portrayal of Americans’ Innocence in Kate Chopin’s “The Father of Desiree’s Baby” and HenryJames’s “Daisy Miller” In their works, “Desiree’s Baby” and “Daisy Miller”, Kate Chopin and Henry James depict the Americans’ innocence and naivety in two different tones. In her story, Chopin seems to propound that the Americans are so innocent that they themselves often tend to provoke the outsiders to question about their innocence. She attempts to propound this thesis the tension which grows on the question about Desiree’s whiteness. In fact, Chopin manipulates ‘whiteness’ as a symbol of American naivety. Chopin seems to tell her readers that if Desiree were not naive and inquired into her husband’s racial origin, she might not face the tragic downfall. Therefore, Desiree herself is responsible for her downfall. In a different tone, Henry James attempts to say that if the outsiders cannot be as innocent and naive as an American, they will never be able to follow his or her heart. Unlike Desiree, James’s protagonist Daisy intentionally preserves her naivety though she knows that her naive behavior will bring about her downfall. Towards the end of the novel, it is revealed that even though she can feel Winterbourne’s love for her, she has not respond to it since he fails to appreciate her innocent behavior. Ultimately in their texts, both of these two authors have come up with the message that Americans are innocent and naive and they will continue to be, even though they ultimately bring about their downfall because their tragic downfall will necessarily provoke others to realize the misunderstanding on their part. At least, Winterbourne has been able to realize it and decided to return to America. In her story, Chopin shows that Desiree’s naivety ultimately brings about her downfall. In fact, she does not tell anything about why Desiree chooses to accept Armand’s decision without any question. But an in-depth analysis of her action in the story necessarily reveals that Desiree is merely a plaything at the hands of the male dominated society. As a girl who does not know her origin, she has no other way but to follow her husband’s order, without any question, to leave the house. Therefore, Desiree’s naivety seems to evolve much from her helplessness in the society which is mercilessly patriarchal. Also Armand’s foster parents, Aubignys, who carefully hides the truth about Armand’s slave origin, are, to a great extent, responsible for her tragedy. This American naivety is quite evident in Mrs. Aubigny’s letter to her husband: “But above all…night and day, I thank the good God… that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.” (Chopin) Driven by a naive sense of love for Armand, the Aubignys had decided to introduce him as a white. But ironically, Armand himself puts this whiteness into question and ultimately realizes that the blackness lies within himself. Indeed, this self-realization of Armand about his blackness (in this case, it is off course spiritual, not racial) appears to be the most valuable achievement of an American’s effort to remain innocent. Unlike Desiree’s and the Aubignys’s dispositional naivety, James’s protagonist, Daisy chooses to retain her naivety throughout the most part of the novella. That is, when the Aubignys are not aware of how naive attitude they holds towards the African-American blacks, Daisy’s letter to Winterbourne reveals that she has been quite aware of the controversial side of the naivety she displays in her behavior. Still she continues displaying it overlooking Winterbourne’s critical remarks. Since Winterbourne has lived for a long time in Europe, he has adopted a Europeanized view of lifestyle, behavior and etiquettes. As a result, from his Europeanized perspective, he cannot decide whether Daisy is innocent or depraved. Indeed, throughout the whole story he suffers from this indecision. Even after seeing Daisy and Mr. Giovaneli late at one night at the Coliseum, he tends to conclude that she is really depraved. Still he cannot decide whether she is innocent or not. Like Armand, when Winterbourne learns about Daisy’s innocence, he realizes that his long distance from his country has failed him to perceive the true innocence of a pure American mind, as he says, “I was booked to make a mistake. I have lived too long in foreign parts.” (James 12) Indeed, Winterbourne’s confusion about Daisy’s innocence evolves from his Europeanized perspective about the limitation of a girl’s role which Daisy has clearly violated. But ironically, a single message which she left before her death reveals that she had been aware of Winterbourne’s criticizing remarks for her. This message further dispels all the confusions about her controversial behaviors, Mrs. Miller tells him: “She told me to tell you that she never was engaged to that handsome Italian…Anyway, she says she's not engaged. I don't know why she wanted you to know, but she said to me three times, 'Mind you tell Mr. Winterbourne.” (James 26) Even Giovanneli also attests her purity, chastity and innocence as following, “She was the most beautiful young lady I ever saw, and the most amiable…and she was the most innocent.” (James 26) Now Winterbourne is sure of one thing that Daisy is pure and innocent. The question is why she behaves recklessly ignoring the fear of scandals and rumors about her chastity. Indeed, the most credible explanation of such behavior of Daisy indicates that she is driven by a kind of obstinacy to retain her innocence while behaving freely and refusing to act according to the patriarchal expectation about rigid gender role for women. Both Daisy Miller and Desiree are innocent and their innocence brings about their downfall. Therefore, their innocence is self-destructive. But the difference between them is that when Desiree chooses to comply with her husband’s order to leave the house without any question, Daisy refuses to conform to the patriarchal society’s expectation about a woman’s role. Desiree could have inquired into the racial origin of husband. But she has not done so. On the other hand, Daisy also could have conformed to the society’s code of manner. Instead, she chooses to act freely, while keeping her purity and innocence intact. Indeed, their downfalls are not completely meaningless. Rather their tragedies give birth to self-perception and self-realization in their counterparts’ mind. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. "The Father of Desiree's Baby." 1893. 12 April 2013. [Online] Available at http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=ChoDesi.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1 James, Henry. Daisy Miller. 12 April 2013. [Online] Available at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/208/208-h/208-h.htm Read More