The Difference Between Saying & Doing

Daisy Miller and Super Sad True Love Story are two complicated love stories that portrayed the character’s true feelings through their texts.  Both stories are similar since they had a character (man) that falls in love with a young lady that seems to show that she knows how to take care of herself. However, by the end of the story, underneath that mask she truly feels regretful for not realizing how she was treating herself and her significant other. There are many differences as well, especially through how the characters talk, the setting they were in, the style they communicated through, and tone of voice.

In Daisy Miller, the setting was set in Vevey, Switzerland, and the author Henry James, uses a formal language in the story to give off the vibe of how the character’s cultural surroundings would be like. People distinguish their classes of wealth, how they represent themselves when they are in public, and actually judge people if they were to seem out of the norm. Winterbourne is a young American who is captivated by the young Daisy Miller’s independence and bubbly personality. Throughout the story, Winterbourne usually remains the same tone of voice, where it was very formal, to show his respect to the individuals around him. Even though his thoughts may sometimes be more of a curious tone, he never went ballistic and out of his zone. During his conversation to Mrs. Costello about Daisy, even though she may had some doubts about Daisy, the way he thought and “listened with interest to these disclosures; they helped him to make up his mind about Miss Daisy,” (James Part 1, chapter 2). One of the reasons why his personality seems to be like so was that “He had imbibed at Geneva the idea that one must always be attentive to one’s aunt,” (James). Since he spent his time with his aunt and does keep her great company, he adapts to hold women with high regards and respects. Right off the bat, when I first read this story, the vocabulary and text was more condensed and a bit harder to read compare to Super, Sad, True Love Story, for example, “ Winterbourne, who had returned to Geneva the day after his excursion to Chillon,” (Part 2, Chapter 3). The texts had many underlining, bolding, and italicize of specific words or phrases, and held an Online Note description of what those words meant at the bottom. Daisy, on the other hand, tries to be a formal character, but her mind and words are spoken as if she was a 10 year old. When she talks to men, it comes off a flirtatious vibe, but yet still attractive to them. She feels the way she acted was formal, therefore, she continued how she was and became stubborn when Winterbourne and others advised her otherwise. When she talked to Winterbourne specifically, she has an informal tone, as though she seems to be so comfortable, “ then I am all improper, and you must give me up. Goodbye; I hope you’ll have a lovely ride!” (James). Daisy’s tone would revolve around how her personality was, and often it’s very full of energy, and independence touch to it.

In Super Sad  Love Story, the text communicated has more informal moments compare to Daisy Miller. E-mails were their main communication to each character’s stories. Eunice would be the most informal character in the story, from beginning to end; she follows this trend of talking. She talks to her girlfriend “Precious Pony” with greetings of, “What’s up tawt? Missing your ‘tard?” (Shteyngart 27), and this portrays what setting and person Eunice comes out to be.  The language gives off a New York sense, and shows that the era is more updated compare to Daisy Miller. The language is more simple and vague, especially through the technology of chatting, it’s usually known to just keeping it at simple phrases. When Eunice talks to her sister through chat, it’s very short where it would have Eunice questioning if her sister really gets what she’s trying to say, “ Sallystar: Okay. Eunistar: This is SERIOUS. I am your older sister, Sally. Sallystar; I said OKAY. “ (170). Not only the context is vague, the way they write is informal as well, with the capitalization in the wrong places. Lenny’s way of communication was more use of his journal entries to get his thoughts out. Since it was a journal diary, it had far more formal texts compare to Eunice. It gives off a vibe that he has more experience, and different cultural vibe growing up. The moments where his texts were different was when he was trying to describe his love for Eunice, since he never felt this deep for a girl, his words gets lost and jumbles around, yet still remains very detailed.  When Lenny had to go finally meet Eunice’s parents he describes his experience, “ Eunice and I walked to our seats, maintaining a “roommate-like” decorum, at least three feet of dusty atmosphere between us at all times” (183). Comparing these two stories, they created a way of using tone, style, and communication to portray the character and their surroundings to let the reader feel what the author was trying to create. The informality and formality was completely different in each stories since their way of communication was different. Daisy Miller was more of a direct contact, compare to Super Sad True Love Story, there were more of thoughts written out on paper or online.

Even though there were more differences than similarities concerning the narrative construction of the stories, the relationships itself were similar. One of the main differences among Eunice and Lenny compare to Daisy and Winterbourne is when and where their setting was in the story. Besides that, both story contained a male falling for a girl, way younger than their age. Eunice would want to meet her dream guy, but ended up staying with Lenny because of essential living and plus she found somehow he was different than other guys. As for Daisy, she found the guy whom she thought was perfect, but the right guy for her was actually in front of her this whole time. All in all, both guys were chasing the kind of girls that was looking for something or someone else. They would get into states of doing too much for their girl or being insecure about themselves. When Lenny was writing to Eunice, he stated, “ there must be all these annoying guys bothering you all the time and I don’t want to be another dork that sends you glad tidings every minute,” (Shteyngart 97). He’s being insecure, thinking that he may be one of those “annoying guys” so to be safe he said to just let her do her own thing, so she doesn’t distance away from him.  As for Winterbourne, when he first met Miss Daisy, he was “amused, perplexed, and decidedly charmed” (James Part 1, Chapter 1) about her by the way she expressed herself. He was confused at the same time to whether to put all these conditions and factors that he sees of her physically, into something more than just being observant. He knew that it “became apparent that he was on the way to learn” (Part 1, Chapter 1).