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The American-European Culture Issues in Fitzgerald, Wharton, Faulkner and HurstonIn both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night and Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, the relationship between American culture and European culture is explored. By focusing on rocky relationships and love triangles, both authors are able to study the allegories of American and European life, and their effect on young lovers and their families. Although Tender is the Night and The Age of Innocence take place largely on separate continents, the ideas of human desire, aging and privilege are prevalent in both works.
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The characters in Wharton’s work are initially defined by their social status. Behind every one of their actions and interactions are the underlying themes of wealth, old money and the protocol of the affluent. Because of the influence of families like the Van Der Luydens, Archer is unable to pursue Ellen Olenska once he has become engaged to May Welland. His ultimate pursuit of happiness is limited as much by the people surrounding him as personal hesitance, and because of this Archer comes close to losing the American dream promised to him because of his bloodlines. Ultimately, Archer finds himself an unwanted visitor in Paris, a harbinger of pain and unfulfilled promises who can only wonder how his life could have been different. Though his life has fit the expectations of the American dream without Madame Olenska, it is the society he ascribes himself to that keeps Archer from realizing a different dream—to follow the forbidden love he develops for Olenska.
Wharton shows the false construction of the American dream in the chapter in which Newland and May host their first dinner party. The couple has been trained to assume certain roles in the marriage. Because of their upbringing in such a deliberate and critical high society, the Newland Archers are expected to entertain guests with the same tradition and in the same manner as did their parents, and thus the dinner is revered as a milestone for the couple. “It was always an interesting occasion when a young pair launched their first invitations in the third person, and their summons was seldom refused even by the seasoned and sought-after” (328). The Archers’ ability to ignore the underlying problems they refrain from discussing in order to earn acceptance in the wealthy community speaks to the expectations and pressure placed upon them by their ancestors and friends.
