The most strenuous activity that he has to complete is to finish his cup of coffee – ‘at last he finished his coffee’ – emphasised by the dramatic conclusion the phrase ‘at last’ gives to such a trivial activity. Winterbourne enjoys a blasé existence, for the words ‘idle’, ‘liberty’ and ‘charming’ are all associated with his personality.

To this end, Winterbourne represents American national identity. Thus, the simile of the German waiters ‘who look like secretaries of legation’ carries with it an undertone of a need for diplomacy, which suggests that this meeting of cultures needs intermediaries.Placing his American characters in an alien environment gives James the opportunity to show the reader what distinguishes Americans from European nationalities.

While there is internationalism and multiculturalism represented in this image, there is no sense of intermingling, for each nation is discernible and distinct. However, contrasting against this American background there is a distinct tension built by James who chooses to separately describe ‘neat German waiters, who look like secretaries of legation Russian princesses sitting in the garden little Polish boys walking about held by the hand with their governors’. This compares the girls to birds that have migrated, touching on similarities such as the seasonal act of communal migration and the ease of travel. James’s description of American girls further plays on an animalistic characterisation as they are likened to birds, ‘flitting hither and thither’, ‘rustling’ and associated with the ‘sound of high pitched voices’. On one hand, it likens Vevey to a civilised space of social gathering, while on the other it gives American tourists an animalistic quality, as if the town is a watering hole to satisfy tourists’ basic needs. The excessiveness that is alluded to in the ‘extremely numerous’ quantity of American visitors taints their portrayal, especially as Vevey is said to assume ‘some of the characteristics of an American watering place’, a statement which has double connotations. In comparing Vevey to the American towns of Newport and Saratoga, James highlights the oversaturation tourism brings upon the town. James’ American tourists in Vevey are described as enacting a cultural invasion.

The American by Henry James