In Nine Stories, Salinger features an array of stories that may seem disjoint at first, but upon closer inspection have underlying themes that bring them together. Namely, the presence of children, especially in an upper-class, adult-dominated environment, is clear. By having a good portion of the stories center around kids who still don't know everything about the world (but may claim to), Salinger succeeds in making Nine Stories a relatable and thought-provoking read.
In "A Perfect Day For Bananafish," the first story of the series, the audience sees a high maintenance, somewhat snobbish Muriel Glass have a phone conversation with her overbearing mother. Meanwhile, her husband, Seymour Glass, is outside on the beach, not really enjoying himself either. We learn that he is a war veteran, and because of this is it safe to assume that he is suffering from some form or another of PTSD, making it hard for him to relate to others. Soon, however, a young girl by the name of Sybil Carpenter joins him, and the two are hitting it off. During their encounter, it becomes clear that Seymour can communicate with children better than adults. He yearns for Sybil's playful innocence, a characteristic that many seem to cherish throughout the novel.
Similarly, "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" features two socialite ladies (Mary Jane and Eloise) drinking alcohol in one of their suburban homes as Eloise's daughter Ramona plays around in the distance. Upon being called in and asked to introduce herself to Mary Jane, it is revealed that Ramona has an imaginary friend, Timmy. Mary Jane finds this just marvelous, but Eloise is pretty annoyed. Here, it is clear that Eloise wishes her daughter were more mature and ditched the imaginary friends. She then turns back to Mary Jane and starts confessing that she doesn't really love her husband and actually finds him quite bland. Ramona comes running in saying Jimmy was run over, which prompts Eloise to send her to bed. Over the course of the night, Mary Jane and Eloise are drifting in and out consciousness as a result of their heavy drinking. At one point, Eloise gets up and goes to Ramona's room and has a breakdown when she sees her daughter is lying to the edge of the bed so as to leave room for her new imaginary friend, Mickey. It becomes clear at this point that Eloise regrets her life and wants to shield Ramona from things that could harm her. Her hysteria at the end of the story backs up this point.
At this point, I still have a lot I could say about the children in the other stories. In "Just Before the War with the Eskimos," it is interesting to study the effect of Franklin on Ginnie, as well as Ginnie and Selena's relationship. "The Laughing Man" is literally narrated by a small child, which we can use to make claims about how this alters the perspective of the story. "Down at the Dinghy" also features a young boy who hears something that sounded mean, even though he doesn't know what it was exactly. His mother works around his innocence and has to make a decision whether to preserve it for a little longer or to tell him what really happened. "For Esmé--with Love and Squalor" focuses on a girl who acts mature for her age, and as a result she succeeds in making a positive impact on the narrator's life. Finally, "Teddy" deals with some important life-or-death, genius child-or-troubled kid themes. During our class presentation, we delved into the plethora of issues at hand when it came to Teddy's personality, and his youth definitely has something to do with it. I would be interested in hearing what you guys have to say about these stories, since I don't think Salinger used so many children just by coincidence.
I like how Salinger uses children as significant characters in his stories. Many stories written for adults/young adults lack the presence for children. Salinger also shows how children are not always the naive ones; they can teach adults a thing or two as well. I think "Teddy" definitely brings that point up; he's an "enlightened" child. Adults are eager to know his theories and ways of life.
ReplyDeleteThe presence of children in these stories is definitely a linking factor, and you make very good points about these two stories and how the children play a key role in them. This may be a little off topic from your blog post, but another interesting thing about the children in your main two stories, is how Salinger forms them as characters. He manages to give them such an important role in these stories, but leave them making trivial child decisions. I believe that the best example was "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut", in which we see Ramona as one of the major conflicts in Eloise's life. Salinger manages to make this interaction between Eloise and Ramona have so much depth without Ramona having to act like an adult and have a full fledged conversation. It is hard to explain, but you give a good example in your blog
ReplyDelete"Mary Jane finds this just marvelous, but Eloise is pretty annoyed. Here, it is clear that Eloise wishes her daughter were more mature and ditched the imaginary friends."
We get that information from the conversation between Eloise and Mary Jane, but the conflict is still with Ramona. Throughout the entire story, Ramona's only actions are what we might expect from a child (Play outside, be shy, have an imaginary friend, etc), but through Eloise talking to Mary Jane, we get a much more important character out of Ramona.