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 the narcissism of small differences.

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

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.