ABSTRACT
Perhaps the leading difference between the English and the American tradition is not to be found in any single literary fact or group of literary facts, but in the attitude of writers to tradition. To approach the American tradition, one must frequently leave literature for social and intellectual history and other non-literary considerations. James's technical contributions of course pervade the entire modern novel, but within the narrower limits of American writing we can see a specific tradition developing. Tom and Daisy Buchanan have the attitudes and habits of a piratical aristocracy based on money and to a certain degree on birth, and Gatsby represents the anarchic force in American society that imitates the piracy of the aristocracy but lacks its codes and conventions. Wolfe's strange and wonderful ransacking of the English tradition in combination with his native American romantic impulses made for a style that was often empty and repellent.
