--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: My first few weeks in America are always…" description: "\"My first few weeks in America are always miserable, because the tastes I am cursed with are all of a kind that cannot be gratified here, and I am not e..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/edith-wharton-512_aesthetic_my-first-few-weeks-in-america-are-always_2279639.jpg" --- # My first few weeks in America are always miserable… ![“My first few weeks in America are always miserable, because the tastes I am cursed with are all of a kind that cannot be gratified here, and I am not enough in sympathy with our gross public to make up for the lack on the aesthetic side. One's friends are delightful; but we are none of us…” quote by Edith Wharton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/edith-wharton-512_aesthetic_my-first-few-weeks-in-america-are-always_2279639.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/edith-wharton-512_aesthetic_my-first-few-weeks-in-america-are-always_2279639.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/edith-wharton-512_aesthetic_my-first-few-weeks-in-america-are-always_2279639.jpg) > “My first few weeks in America are always miserable, because the tastes I am cursed with are all of a kind that cannot be gratified here, and I am not enough in sympathy with our gross public to make up for the lack on the aesthetic side. One's friends are delightful; but we are none of us Americans, we don't think or feel as the Americans do, we are the wretched exotics produced in a European glass-house, the most displaced and useless class on earth!” [Edith Wharton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edith-wharton/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A foreigner feels alienated in America because cultural tastes and social norms differ, leading to a sense of uselessness and exile. **In simple terms:** Feeling out of place in a new country. Key Takeaway Seek communities that share your cultural values. Themes alienation culture shock identity exile Mood lonely reflective Type personal social commentary When to use this quote - expatriate life - academic study of immigration - creative writing workshops - cultural exchange programs Key Concepts exoticism social displacement class consciousness Questions to Reflect On - How do you find belonging in a foreign culture? - What aspects of your heritage can enrich your new environment? A Different Perspective The quote may overgeneralize Americans and ignore diverse subcultures. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Aesthetic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/aesthetic/) [America](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/america/) [America Miserable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/america-miserable-5267380/) [Americans Wretched](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/americans-wretched-5314707/) [Class](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/class/) [Cursed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cursed/) [Delightful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/delightful/) [Earth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/earth/) [Enough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/enough/) [Exile](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/exile/) [Feel Americans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/feel-americans-1740978/) [Feels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/feels/) [Firsts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/firsts/) [Glass houses](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/glass-houses/) [Glasses](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/glasses/) [Gross](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gross/) [House](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/house/) [Kind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kind/) [Miserable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/miserable/) [Miserable Tastes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/miserable-tastes-5314708/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Sides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sides/) [Taste](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/taste/) [Tastes Cursed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tastes-cursed-5314709/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) [Useless](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/useless/) [Week](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/week/) [Wretched](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wretched/) ## Related quotes > [Some of the most miserable people I know are some of the richest people in America, they are the most miserable individuals I've ever…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chuck-norris/some-of-the-most-miserable-people-i-know-are-some-of-the-richest/) [Chuck Norris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chuck-norris/) > [English people are famous for never speaking out but only saying what they really feel about you behind your back. 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Where nobody throws stones, for all live in glass houses.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sophie-irene-loeb/what-is-paris-where-nobody-throws-stones-for-all-live-in-glass-houses/) [Sophie Irene Loeb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sophie-irene-loeb/) > [The Church cannot be content to live in its stained-glass house and throw stones through the picture window of modern culture.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-mcafee-brown/the-church-cannot-be-content-to-live-in-its-stained-glass-house-and/) [Robert McAfee Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-mcafee-brown/) > [People in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author-name/people-in-glass-houses-shouldnt-throw-stones/) [Author Name](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/author-name/) ## More by Edith Wharton > [“Suddenly the air was full of that deep clangor of bells which periodically covers Rome with a roof of silver.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edith-wharton/suddenly-the-air-was-full-of-that-deep-clangor-of-bells-which/) [Edith Wharton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edith-wharton/) > [“Untrained human nature was not frank and innocent; it was full of the twists and defences of an instinctive guile. 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Make sure you have all the information, whether it's aesthetic, scientific, mathematical, I don't care what it is. Then you walk…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/you-feed-yourself-make-sure-you-have-all-the-information-whether-it-s/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“Beauty in the European sense has always had a premeditated quality to it. We've always had an aesthetic intention and a long-range plan. That's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milan-kundera/beauty-in-the-european-sense-has-always-had-a-premeditated-quality-to/) [Milan Kundera](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/milan-kundera/) > [All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/all-efforts-to-render-politics-aesthetic-culminate-in-one-thing-war/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Design certainly has a cosmetic, aesthetic aim. It always aims at making things beautiful. 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I often say, 'If…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yves-behar/design-certainly-has-a-cosmetic-aesthetic-aim-it-always-aims-at/) [Yves Behar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yves-behar/) > [I don't think I was ever thinking critically about my aesthetic, I think it's enough when you're little just to understand that you can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tavi-gevinson/i-don-t-think-i-was-ever-thinking-critically-about-my-aesthetic-i/) [Tavi Gevinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tavi-gevinson/) > [I'm kind of still down with Virg Woolf on this one: "women must kill the aesthetic ideal through which they themselves have been 'killed'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lidia-yuknavitch/i-m-kind-of-still-down-with-virg-woolf-on-this-one-women-must-kill/) [Lidia Yuknavitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lidia-yuknavitch/) > [Virtue is as little to be acquired by learning as genius; nay, the idea is barren, and is only to be employed as an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-schopenhauer/virtue-is-as-little-to-be-acquired-by-learning-as-genius-nay-the-idea/) [Arthur Schopenhauer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-schopenhauer/) > [There is a certain aesthetic pleasure in trying to imagine the unimaginable and failing, if you are a reader.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-s-byatt-2/there-is-a-certain-aesthetic-pleasure-in-trying-to-imagine-the/) [A. S. Byatt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-s-byatt-2/) > [I try to get the hip-hop aesthetic, most times without an MC. I don't use a rapper or a DJ to give it the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-glasper/i-try-to-get-the-hip-hop-aesthetic-most-times-without-an-mc-i-don-t/) [Robert Glasper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-glasper/) > [It's so important what you're doing in your life. It's tremendously important to the work, and no aesthetic theories take that into account.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-maus/it-s-so-important-what-you-re-doing-in-your-life-it-s-tremendously/) [John Maus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-maus/) > [It is not necessary to have an extravagant food budget in order to serve things with variety and tastefully cooked. It is not necessary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edith-schaeffer/it-is-not-necessary-to-have-an-extravagant-food-budget-in-order-to/) [Edith Schaeffer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edith-schaeffer/) > [In reality no food is valued solely for its nutritive power and no garment or house solely for the protection it affords against cold…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ludwig-von-mises/in-reality-no-food-is-valued-solely-for-its-nutritive-power-and-no/) [Ludwig von Mises](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ludwig-von-mises/) > [Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful. 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Not a movement committed to a particular 'ism', but a gathering together of writers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-metcalf/i-wanted-the-press-to-become-something-of-a-movement-not-a-movement/) [John Metcalf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-metcalf/) [Browse all 953 Aesthetic quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/aesthetic/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "My first few weeks in America are always miserable, because the tastes I am cursed with are all of a kind that cannot be gratified here, and I am not enough in sympathy with our gross public to make up for the lack on the aesthetic side. 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