A Cosmopolitanized American

In the second half of the 19th century, American puritan tradition and Emerson's inspiring transcendentalism were on the wane. The commercialism along with the commercial flourish after the Civil War was not formed. American indigenous culture, still under the colonial influence from Europe, hadn't been shaped yet. Being politically independent for more than 100 years, America remained dependent in culture. What future awaited American culture? How to deal with American tradition and the relation with Europe– the cultural ancestor? Then, an ideal American culture would come into being.Almost all American scholars of that age were probing into these questions. Henry James, having received both European and American education and formed a cosmopolitan angle due to his father's educational philosophy, responded to them in his own way. In his opinion, an ideal American culture was supposed to merge the virtues of European and American cultures. American virtues, however, should play a major role. James retained sense of responsibility from puritan morality but eliminated its rigid, abstinent and unnatural parts. He, then, distilled independent critical thinking from individual freedom– the precious heritage from Emerson. The profound historical and cultural heritage in Europe, such as masters'literary and artistic products, sufficed individual aesthetic needs. Individual freedom first ensured individual independence; then, sense of duty prevented extreme individualism and connected individual with society. Meanwhile, aesthetics relieved the possible inhibition resulting from duty, making life rich and full. If those virtues had been embodied in a person, he or she would have been a whole man; if those virtues in a culture, a whole culture then. It was James's ideal on American culture.James's idea wasn't formed overnight. He explored, developed and perfected his idea through his novels. This thesis selected four novels of James'different writing periods, Four Meetings, Daisy Miller, A Portrait of a Lady, and The Ambassadors, to display the development and fulfillment of James's idea. Caroline Spencer in Four Meetings, couldn't accept her life in America owing to her infatuation about European culture. She failed to realize her dream– to have a tour in Europe after all her money was cheated away by her cousin. Finally, she died in melancholy. Daisy Miller stuck to her American style, closing doors to both European conventions and niceness. She couldn't escape her doomed fate, either. It can be inferred from these two novels that to perfect a culture requires adoption of virtues from other cultures. In A Portrait of a Lady and The Ambassadors, James portrayed two figures, Isabel Archer and Lambert Strether, who represented his ideal. Though the former failed to make a right choice on her marriage because of the lack of experience, the latter could make reasonable choices and fulfill his mission with the help of life experience and wisdom. In this sense, the latter embodied James's ideal in a fuller way.