Proud To Be An American?

Fanny Packin' It“Any overview of the past century's critical responses to Daisy Miller reveals a radical shift in readers' sympathies with its characters. The genteel American audience of James's day was outraged and insulted by Daisy's liberated behavior, but modern sensibilities identify Winterbourne as the principal offender against human decency. They accuse him of being everything from an emotional cripple to an unfeeling criminal, and now count Daisy as his almost innocent victim.”
- Carey H. Kirk, ‘Daisy Miller: The Reader’s Choice”
In retrospect, it’s easy to look at James’ Daisy Miller as a metaphor for the American role in foreign affairs in general: assertive, independent and (dare I suggest) often a little ignorant of consequences. But to put it in context of the time it was written, when America was still something of a “new” country, an “innocent”, Daisy’s behavior becomes more difficult to place. Whether we consider her a feminist heroine or an embarrassing representation of our country will always fluctuate, as Kirk suggests, and it really depends on our opinion of the modern American tourist.
Nowadays, “tourist” is a dirty word. If Winterbourne were visiting Europe in our time, he would certainly much rather be considered a “traveler” than a tourist and especially rather than an “American”. The idea of an American abroad today conjures up images less of innocence and charm and irreverence (images, in essence, of Daisy Miller if we are to believe that her behavior really was just a result of earnest naivety) and more of fanny packs and an almost impressive determination to go as far out of one’s way to avoid learning the language of their host country as possible. Is America’s “reckless” – to borrow from Mrs. Walker – reputation well deserved? It’s hard to say and, according to this USA Today article, often a matter of politics.
What interested me most, though, about that piece wasn’t so much the article itself as the info box on the side, Tips For Blending In. Why is the best thing to do in a foreign country to try to blend in? Why do we automatically think that immersing ourselves in another culture can only be achieved through trying to become a member of that culture, even falsely, even in vain, even if it means being ashamed of or masking our actual culture, and that that is more cultured and intelligent? I don’t think that my compatriots should be allowed license to act obnoxiously (and I know they often do), but I also don’t understand how being a “tourist” came to have such a negative connotation. Daisy was the only character that refused to blend in and while her story didn’t end happily, it could be argued that it was she who experienced the most in Europe.