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A literary technique that authors often times employ is giving to the characters a name to enhance the reader's understanding of that character. In The American, Henry James uses this style with most of his characters' names. Often times, the names may translate into an English word, or it could even just sound like an English word. The novel is better understood because of this and the reader can get more meaning out of each character and his or her personality traits. In whichever way James chooses to depict names, they intensify the reader's comprehension.

The main character, Christopher Newman, is a prime example of Henry James' use of this method. He is named after Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America, as he says early in the novel, "Did you ever hear of Christopher Columbus?…my parents named me for him." (6). This is just relating him ever more to America and distinguishing him from a European. His last name "Newman" is very......

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Approximate Word Count: 1010
Approximate Pages: 5 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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