Daisy Miller: Cultural Differences In "Daisy Miller" by Henry James, readers are challenged to look at a young American girl primarily from Winterbourne's point of view. Daisy is described as extremely beautiful and quite innocent. Winterbourne's infatuation with this typical American girl actually reveals the differences between the highly developed upper-class European culture and the developing American culture. Even though Winterbourne is American, he shows readers what European culture is all about: the courtesy, the bravery, and the apparent gap in social status, etc. Winterbourne's sophisticated manners contrast with Daisy's relatively poor education, innocence, and crudeness. Therefore, the way Winterbourne's aunt criticizes Daisy's vulgarity symbolically indicates European pride in young American culture. The dominant image of Daisy throughout the work is that she appears to be outspoken and therefore never tries to hide her inner spirit like typical European girls in order to attract the attention of men. However, this dominant image will be doomed to be changed by the latest plot twist. At the time of her death, Daisy's wish is that Winterbourne knows that she is not engaged to this Italian. So why? In fact, it's quite ambiguous; nevertheless, his wish can be interpreted as a desperate attempt to overcome European prejudice against superficial American culture. In other words, behind his vulgarity and innocence lies a fundamental desire to appreciate and value his dignity even in romantic relationships, which is not vulgar at all and which makes Winterbourne study hard..