Compare Daisy Miller and Super Sad True Love Story. Pay attention to the kinds of words used, the formality or lack of formality, sentence length and variety, the way the authors create a sense of time and place through tone, diction, style. Cite specific instances which illustrate these differences.
To continue comparison, examine the relationships between Daisy and Winterbourne, and Eunice and Lenny. Despite the differences in narrative construction do you perceive similarities in these relationships? Cite examples from the texts to support your ideas.
Comparing "Daisy Miller" and "Super Sad True Love Story"
ReplyDeleteBoth "Daisy Miller" and "Super Sad True Love Story" share a lot of similarities. Both are written in a way that goes back in forth between different styles of writing. "Daisy Miller" has parts where there will be a lot of dialogue and then parts where there is a very long paragraph. "SSTLS" was kind of the same because during Eunice's speaking parts they were shorter and easier to understand, and Lenny's parts are much longer and detailed. "Daisy Miller" is told more through third-person with dialogue and "SSTLS" is more told from either Lenny or Eunice's point of view, like journal entries.
I feel like the relationship between Daisy and Winterbourne, and Eunice and Lenny are a lot alike. Both girls are very witty and kind of say whatever is on their mind. Here is a quote about Daisy that I found interesting, "There had not been the slightest alteration in her charming complexion; she was evidently neither offended nor flattered. If she looked another way when he spoke to her, and seemed not particularly to hear him, this was simply her habit, her manner." Both Lenny and Winterbourne are drawn to these girls because they are different, there is something unknown to them. I feel like they both are trying to help the girls with their problems, they are constantly trying to protect them.
Daisy Miller and Super Sad True Love Story have some parallels in the characters choice of speech and communication, but also some distinct differences in each characters role. In Super Sad True Love Story, Eunice is more casual and nonchalant about whom she is around Lenny. She has a wall between herself and Lenny that seems to compel him to her, as Lenny is also fascinated by her youth. The difference is Daisy Miller is, rather than being informal, she seemed to be more formal and proper as a “lady” would be.
ReplyDeleteHowever, though Daisy and Eunice differ in that aspect, the respective men that pursued them, they were intrigued by their style. Winterbourne seemed to be attracted to Daisy and her lady-likeness. “Poor Winterbourne was amused, perplexed, and decidedly charmed. He had never yet heard a young girl express herself in just this fashion; never, at least, save in cases where to say such things seemed a kind of demonstrative evidence of a certain laxity of deportment.”
Their encounters seem to be more formal while Lenny tries to maintain a sense of informality that came natural to Eunice. In the end, both men seem to have a desire to protect these women, but in the end fail because they merely aren’t interested.
Opposites Attract:
ReplyDeleteEunice and Daisy both have a colloquial way of speaking. When conversing with her friend, Precious Pony, Eunice uses a lot of slang terms and vulgar words to get her points across. Such terms used included slut, hot, ‘tard, BTW, etc. Daisy, trying to fit into European high society, fails at doing so because her improper way of speaking gets in the way. For instance, you can just hear her American accent when reading the following sentence: “’Yes,’ said Miss Miller without examining this analogy; ‘it always made me wish I was here. But I needn't have done that for dresses. I am sure they send all the pretty ones to America.’” Lenny from SSTLS doesn’t use the most formal grammar when narrating, but he is still able to come across as extremely intelligent and imaginative with the words that he uses. The author of Daisy Miller, Henry James, uses proper grammar and is still uses imaginative words to tell the story. For example, he starts of Daisy Miller by illustrating the background for the story: “At the little town of Vevey, in Switzerland, there is a particularly comfortable hotel. There are, indeed, many hotels, for the entertainment of tourists is the business of the place, which, as many travelers will remember, is seated upon the edge of a remarkably blue lake--a lake that it behooves every tourist to visit.”
The main similarity between Daisy Miller and Super Sad True Love Story is the relationship between the star-crossed lovers in each respective novel. In SSTLS, Lenny and Eunice have an unusual bond. Lenny describes his first sexual encounter with Eunice in a very passionate way whereas Eunice describes it to Precious Pony as an awkward moment of her life. Daisy and Winterbourne have a very similar relationship. When describing Winterbourne’s admiration for Daisy, the author describes it as such: “Poor Winterbourne was amused, perplexed, and decidedly charmed. He had never yet heard a young girl express herself in just this fashion…” Winterbourne is furthermore similar to Lenny in that he wants to shower her with admiration, as he states, “’She is completely uncultivated,’ Winterbourne went on. ‘But she is wonderfully pretty, and, in short, she is very nice. To prove that I believe it, I am going to take her to the Chateau de Chillon.” Lenny does the exact same thing to Eunice when constantly inviting her to stay with him at her place and basically providing her shelter and his protection. Winterbourne and Lenny are basically attracted to the unknown, and they want to do whatever it takes to uncover their mysteries.
I noticed that one of the major similarities of Super Sad True Love Story and Daisy Miller was the theme of perfection or striving to be something you are not. Daisy Miller tried to up her social standing constantly and was always trying to impress others. Likewise, Lenny would check his apparat and wished he could improve his social standing and his image. Also, both writings were pretty informal, for the most part, but relay the plot very well.
ReplyDeleteI returned "Super, Sad True Love Story" to the library already, but when Lenny is in a bar with his friends and Eunice, he notices that his rankings improved when he was with Eunice, compared to before. In a different way, it seems that Daisy tries to increase her rankings by talking about her wealthy family from New York constantly. Also, there is dialogue in both writings. The dialogue is often short in both, but it does leave the reader informed and the information is relayed to the reader appropriately.
Daisy and Winterbourne's relationship is somewhat similar to Lenny and Eunice's relationship. Although they are different, there are definitely many similarities about them. I noticed that in both writings, both Eunice and Daisy strive for ideals, especially social ideas. Both of the girls in the stories, seemed unsure of the relationships, but the men, Winterbourne and Lenny, seemed to be a source of stability, trust, and companionship in their lives. In each, the men seemed to really build the girls' confidence and lead them to self-realization. I also don't think that either girl really belonged with LEnny or Winterbourne, but at certain times, they were the only people that wanted to see through the outer shell of the girls and really get to know them and want to care for them. Lenny and Winterbourne both tried really hard to get personally close with him, even ignoring/not listening to what other people had to say about their relationships.
Super Sad True Love Story and Daisy Miller are very similar stories with very similar themes. Daisy and Eunice and alike because they are both young, and they care a lot about impressions and how people think of them in other words they are vain. Lenny and Mr. WInterbourne are both older men who find live with their respective women, the language that they use makes them sound more intelligent and more worldly. When Eunice is conversing with Precious Pony she uses simple and improper language however, when she is talking to Lenny she tries to sound more grown up. This is similar to Daisy Miller, when she goes to Europe she tries to sound mature and smart but she is often made fun of because her use of language doesn't always make her sound this way.
ReplyDeleteI found the relationship between Daisy and Mr. Winterbourne to similar to Eunice and Lenny because they both are unlikely matches for each other. Eunice thought she belonged with someone younger and more handsome but actually found herself more comfortable with Lenny and the same with Daisy she eventually found herself happy with Winterbourne. Unlike Eunice however, Daisy is more comfortable around men I have always had,' she said, 'a great deal of gentleman's society.'" (p. 10) because she has had a lot of experience with dating all types of men, she is comfortable around Winterbourne but she she is still very smitten by him. and is still very careful of her language so that she sounds grown up and mature. Overall, I think that the both the stories have an interesting take on romance and society, and language and communications is a large part of it.
Right off the bat, Daisy Miller seems to be very happy to see Winterbourne. Miss Daisy Miller seemed very glad to see him. They don’t see each other until dinnertime and she declares, “it was the longest evening she had ever passed.” She gives the sense that she is very interested in Mr. Winterbourne right away. On the contrary, Eunice seemed very uninterested with Lenny until she reached out for help to Lenny when she needed a place to stay in New York. Daisy has a very formal tone towards Winterbourne, she calls him “Mr. Winterbourne!" he replies to her "Mademoiselle!.” They both have a very distant and formal relationship with each other. Daisy said she liked formal guys, yet when Winterbourne takes her on the boat, she expresses that he’s too serious. She comments that he looks as if he “was taking her to a funeral.” I feel that Daisy doesn’t really know what she wants. She feels she wants a formal guy, yet she doesn’t at the same time. She citizens him for being too serious and doesn’t accept him for who he is.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Eunice seems to be joking around with Lenny right off the bat. She is comfortable enough to fix his crooked tie. Therefore their relationship is closer and less formal. They go to eat around Rome and Eunice is a lot more informal because she let’s Lenny go down on her. That is something Daisy would never allow Winterbourne to do right away, after meeting for the first time.