A Person Portrayed Through Another

In the text Daisy Miller, the narrator switches styles often going from formal to informal. This is also shown in Super Sad True Love Story, where Lenny's character has more intellectual and elongated sentences while Eunice is portrayed as more informal and short. "After knocking at his aunt's door and learning that she was indisposed, he had taken a walk about the town, and then he had come in to his breakfast" (Daisy Miller). In this quote one can detect the author's tone and it's formality. As the story goes on, dialogue comes into play and the sentences become much shorter, and contain a smaller range of vocabulary. "My sister ain't the best!" the child declared. "She's always blowing at me" (Daisy Miller). In Super Sad True Love Story, Lenny, being in the older generation, liked to record memories by writing in his journal. These entries were long and detailed, leaving the reader completely informed as to what was going on inside his mind. He would take into account his experiences with Eunice, which also gave the idea of who Eunice was. In Eunice's recollections, she wrote them in email/text message form. This left the reader informed, however it was hard to understand who Eunice really was because she was telling these stories to other people, rather than keeping them to herself. The reader's best bet was to look into Lenny's accounts upon the way Eunice reacted to certain situations in order to get to know Eunice better as a character. This also occurred in Daisy Miller, Winterbourne's view of Daisy gave the reader a better understanding of what type of person Daisy really was.

In regards to the relationships themselves, I see a great deal of similarities with Daisy and Winterbourne and Lenny and Eunice. The men in this relationship seem to be more intellectual and uptight whereas the women are portrayed to be carefree and youthful. Eunice and Daisy are similar in the sense that they want to adapt to the societal norm and Lenny and Winterbourne are both the same in that they want to care for these women and keep them who they truly are. "Everything that is not done here. Flirting with any man she could pick up; sitting in corners with mysterious Italians; dancing all the evening with the same partners; receiving visits at eleven o'clock at night. Her mother goes away when visitors come" (Daisy Miller). This quote pertains to the prompt because it shows Daisy's actions and personality and at the same time it portrays Winterbourne's reaction to these actions. “After a while I just start to trust him with everything and I open up the way I would to a girlfriend” (Super Sad True Love Story, pg 114). This quote illustrates the transformation Lenny caused Eunice to go through. When stating this quote, Eunice didn't understand why she had these feelings for Lenny because she didn't feel attracted to him. Daisy had the same doubts in the short story about Winterbourne.


-Michelle Bella