7/28/2019 Essay on Henry James

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HENRY JAMESS POINT OF VIEW

The first aspect that catches my attention while reading The point of view, by Henry

James is precisely the original structure of the short-story: an exchange of letters that

interact wisely and perfectly with each other. Those letters, written in first-person, are

being sent by Europeans that travel to United States and by Americans that, after living

in the Continent for a while, return home in order to find a good candidate for marriage.

They all have their point of view of the life on the other side.

Indeed, this epistolary short-novel is a pretext to come back to one of the authors

favorite themes: the contrast between Europe and America, in their different styles of

life as well as in their ideas of the Public Government and Democracy. It is also a

reflection about the English language and its variations, but in a very ironic way that

reminds what Freud coined as thenarcissism of smalldifferences.

As a matter of fact, this leads the author to talk about how difficult in the beginning is to

be a foreigner, even if the language is still the same. Being a stranger often involves

dealing with a feeling of being out of place, at least sometimes, and not connecting

enough with the local culture and natives. But at the same time, he also show us that a

certain level of misplace is necessary to find afterwards our own position in the world.

Furthermore, there is always an alien part in ourselves that fortunately emerges in the

relationships with a non familiar world and the others.

The writers prose is transparently, simple and honest. What its really attracting is the

writers choice of words: the searching for the exact term to describe in detail both the

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psychology and the feelings of each character. With this aesthetic work of the language,

the author achieves some hilarious moments, sparking characters and ingenious lines. In

fact, even the author makes mockery of himself when he portrays a novelist with

pretensions to literature, who writes about the chase for the husband and the adventures

of the rich Americans in our corrupt old Europe.

Henry James was an excellent observer of his time as its revealed in this tale. He

was able to catch the spirit of American and the soul of English people. Although

Jorge L. Borges used to say that the works of Henry James suffers from a lack of

life, I found this especially tale very much alive, even if everything is happening in

the minds of the characters and you never find too much action

The point of view is worth reading not only as an outstanding and original work of

fiction and style, but also as an anthropological document of both cultures. Its amazing

how a visionary Henry James was about the future of civilization, and how he saw that

at the end, America would export its Democracy model and Capitalism to Europe first,

but then all around the world.

Certainly, as a short-story author, Henry James deserves one of the privileged places at

the forefront of the American canon. His literature and his writing style are in the

middle of European tradition and American innovation. In conclusion, Henry James was

a remarkable translator of cultures, moreover, he created his own private land as a result

of the combination of a society of equals, legacy of the Republican values and

principles, but at the same time preserving the English education and manners, and

above all keeping the British typical sense of humour.