America Grows Up

Hints of industrialization and the changing nature of American culture permeate several of these selections. “A White Heron” beautifully fictionalizes the tension of change—from an agrarian nation of pioneers to a more urbanized environment of entrepreneurs. There are multiple layers of Jewett’s story. On one level, a young girl moves from a position of innocence to experience. The protagonist, Sylvia, becomes aware of the desire to please man as well as the potential conflict of interest such a desire has with her love of nature. At the end of the story, she remains loyal to the sought-after heron not out of ignorance but out of deliberate choice. She is now aware that either decision requires some sort of sacrifice. “Were the birds ever better friends than their hunter might have been,--who can tell?” America seems to be going through a similar transition. To remain agrarian in nature might be safe and calmer. But perhaps Americans wonder, like Sylvia, whether industrial progress will be a better friend than the birds. Either way, some things will be gained, while others will be lost. The story is particularly poignant considering the young age of America as a nation. America herself is moving from innocence to experience in her own way, through events such as wars, slavery, expansion, and growing industrialization.

Theodore Roosevelt’s “From American Ideals” shocked me in the similarity of its rhetoric to much of what we still hear today. Roosevelt writes about the response of Americans and immigrants to the continued immigration of people from other nations. Roosevelt’s main hypothesis is that immigrants are welcome as long as they learn to be “American” above all else. For Roosevelt, becoming American is also synonymous with ceasing to be European. He does not have issues with being a “people of mixed blood,” but he desires for all immigrants to cease their native languages and customs in order to fully embrace the heartily American way of life. At one point, Roosevelt declares, “To bear the name American is to bear the most honorable of titles; and whoever does not so believe has no business to bear the name at all, and, if he comes from Europe, the sooner he goes back there the better.” How similar this statement is to current rhetoric concerning the influx of the Hispanic population! Some believe that immigration should equal assimilation, and that to come to the country without learning English is a detriment to our society and an inconvenience upon us. Others believe that everyone should learn Spanish to accommodate those who are moving into the country. It seems that somewhere there is a much sought after, little found balance.

Roosevelt proposes an interesting idea that I find somewhat contradictory. He embraces the mixed nature of our people as Americans, saying that some of the best people he knows are from Scandinavia, Ireland, Germany, etc. Yet he wants people to abandon all customs except those which are truly “American.” Yet in reality, all Americans are immigrants except for the Native Americans (and even they most likely traveled to America from a different location). The American spirit that Roosevelt speaks of cannot be but a blending of different cultures. Who decides what is truly “American” and what looks too much like our European roots? Roosevelt later implies that some of America’s defining characteristics are her hard work ethic and endurance. Yet it seems rather arrogant to assume these qualities are exclusively or “truly” American. Authors such as Jose Marti and Helen Hunt Jackson seem to rise up against this “us” and “them” mentality. Women such as Jane Addams worked to embrace the diversity of immigrant culture while at the same time helping them find a niche within the American society.

I found Henry James to be an interesting author in the midst of a slew of others interested in writing only stories taking place in and concerned with America. Though he certainly confronted American stereotypes, he dared to set his story back in Europe. It seems that American writers were often so concerned with developing a distinctly American genre that they overlooked international issues. At times, the overwhelming desire to be individualistic seemed to somewhat blind Americans to their place in the world as a whole. James shows an interesting tension between national pride and a larger vision for the world, a sophisticated sense of internationalism. I wonder whether this sense of the world at large will grow as imperialism grows, with the expansion of American economy and interests into other nations around the world. And I was left wondering about Daisy Miller and her true character, just as James’ biography predicted I would be in describing his ambiguous endings.