All of Salingers Stories - Term Paper Example

?Outline 0. Introduction 2.0. Discussion 2 The catcher in the rye 2.2. Franny and Zooey 2.3. Nine stories 2.4. Raise the Roof Beam, Carpenters,and Seymour: An Introduction. 3.0. Analysis 4.0. Conclusion 1.0. Introduction. Salinger was a renowned writer in the 1960 whose works were published and read all over in the US. his major work was The Catcher in the Rye, a novel that sell up to and over 25,000 copies annually, while the other short stories such as Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction were subsequently published. Most of his works, especially the novel The Catcher in the Rye depicted a great deal of adolescent themes through the novel’s protagonist Holden Caulfield. Through his other works, Salinger emphasizes a rather concealed concept of the innocence of children while they grow up and how social and other systems in society alienate children of their innocence as they grow into adults. This paper will, therefore, attempt to connect Salinger’s portrayal of children’s innocence based on the four works as named above. We will do a book-by book analysis of his depiction of children to come to a common conclusion. 2.0. Discussion. 2.1. The Catcher in the Rye. This novel was originally written for the adult audience. The book’s adolescent themes such as teenage alienation, confusion, angst, and rebellion however, found more favour among the youth, turning it into a teenage novel. The novel begins with Holden’s narration of events in the past at his school. Through the narration, we see Holden as a victim of circumstances when he loses his school’s football team equipment in the subway prior to the football match that afternoon leading to subsequent cancellation of the match. As a result, he is suspended from school until after Christmas (Crawford 26). Although Holden escaped from school to the Edmont hotel in New York, it is in a bid to get away from conflict and confrontation with his school mates as he engages in a fight with his roommate Stradlater. Later, Holden develops sexual desires and ends up with a prostitute in his room. This is quite innocent and coming of Holden who is in his adolescence, full of desire for sexual exploration. When he brings the prostitute to his room, he does not judge her as harsh as society does as to him, she is just a normal human being who deserves right treatment and respect. Even when she leaves without him having slept with her, he still pays him and thanks her for coming. This shows the innocence of a boy just caught up in the developments of life. Holden engages in drink after his friend, Sally, refuses to elope with him. This he does out of pure frustrations as his sexuality is at peak, but does not wish to enjoy it with anyone but that whom he loves, which is Sally. When he rejects his innocent desire to have her all alone to himself, he has no one to talk to and the only way he can deal with the frustration is by drinking it down. His frustrations force him into his parent’s house to see and talk to his sister, Phoebe. The two talk and Holden shares his innocently misinterpreted wish to be a catcher of children in the rye to help prevent them from losing their innocence (Crawford 43). While at Mr. Antolini’s house, Holden is disgusted at what he thinks is a homosexual move by the host toward him. This shows that despite Holden’s sexuality at peak, he regards some things such as homosexuality as immoral and that it should not be tolerated when he leaves Antolini’s house immediately. His allusions toward the end of the novel about being mentally ill and living in a mental hospital shows an innocent childish wish to stay away from the realities of life by staying secluded in a place of no reality. As was his dream to save the children in the rye from the harshness of life, so does he wish to forever stay in the innocence of childhood. 2.2. Franny and Zooey. Franny and Zooey are brother and sister, the youngest members of the glass family. Zooey is a genius while Franny suffers emotional and spiritual breakdown. Zooey offers her sister what he thinks will see ger get well, love, understanding, and words of advice. this depicts Zooey’s innocent perception of Franny’s situation and his innocent perceived remedy of the problem, although their mother is very concerned of it. He does not think of a complex solution, but rather a simple one for a simple problem. Franny is a devoted believer who believes in Christianity and does not hesitate to tell her date about God and religion. She fails to realize that Lane is not interested in her spiritual tales but rather continues practicing the art of ‘praying without ceasing’ (Crawford 267). Through Franny, Salinger portrays the true picture of children’s innocence. As a child would, she is not afraid or ashamed to let out her beliefs to Lane and due to children’s lack of sufficient articulation capabilities; she fails to detect Lane’s disinterest until he leaves her alone. This is unlike Holden in the Catcher of the Rye whose articulation capability is high, but he interprets what he perceives with the simplicity and innocence of a child. Zooey, on the other, hand is the family’s genius. As he takes a bath, his mother enters and while they talk, he keeps asking her to leave as he spars and banters. This, he does innocently as a way of annoying her mother so that she can leave. 2.3. Nine Stories. Nine stories is a collection of nine short stories by Salinger. All the nine stories carry different themes all about the Glass family. The first story is A Perfect Day for Bananafish. The story is about Seymour, Franny and Zooey’s elder brother and his marriage to Muriel. Seymour seems mentally unstable to both his wife and her family, probably post-traumatic stress for the world war in which he fought. Seymour has an encounter with a child, Sybil at the beach and the two engage in a conversation. Sybil talks it easy on Seymour not questioning why he is at the beach with a bathing suit. Throughout the conversation with him, she does not point out anything amiss about Seymour who is psychiatric. This is all because of her childish innocence. Seymour, on the other hand, finds solace and comfort in this innocence as he seems to be more at ease with Sybil than his wife and all those asking him to seek psychiatric assistance. The two play the Bananafish game comfortably, spotting imaginary Bananafish in the water. The story depicts the kind of comfort and gratification that can be found in a child’s innocence, the comfort of the oblivion rather than grown-up scrutiny (Salinger 35). Another story is Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut. The story is about two women, Mary Jane and Eloise. The two were college mates who both never got to graduate. While in college, both left due to illicit relationships with their lovers, which did not work out. Through their stories, we see a sense of children innocence as they followed their innocently love-stricken hearts at adolescence, giving up their career paths. Eloise’s daughter Ramona climaxes child innocence when she claims that her imaginary friend Jimmy is dead and goes ahead to leave space in her bed for her new imaginary friend Mickey Mickeranno. Just before The War with the Eskimos is another story featuring a young girl Virginia (Ginnie). Ginnie plays tennis with another girl Selena. Ginnie demands that Selena refunds her all the money she has been on taking a taxi home instead of a bus since it was her idea. Selena defends herself that she always brings the tennis balls and that should compensate for the money. Ginnie, however, insists that she pays up the money and follows her to her home for the money. Through Ginnie’s insensitive actions and behavior toward Selena, we see a negative image of children innocence. She does not know and is oblivious to the fact that she is mean to Selena, especially given the sickly condition of her mother. This is typical of children at schools and playing at home being mean and insensitive to their friends (Salinger 59). Teddy is yet another of the nine stories featuring a ten year old boy, Teddy. Teddy stays in his bag through most part of the story and will not come out even in public. Teddy’s poems are comical such as that of a man’s head split into half by a falling coconut. While talking to a friend Nicholson, he says that he does not have emotions and cannot remember when he last applied them. His arguments about his love for God and his parents’ love for him is childish and silly but he does not sense how silly the argument is. All these about Teddy portray a childish innocence, perceiving things in a more literal manner rather than realistic way. His staying in a bag is also an innocent gesture as he is not aware of the impression and attention he could be attracting from other people (Salinger 72). The Laughing Man is about a college young man taking his friends to field trips. The story focuses on the loss of child innocence. The college man, chief as they call him tries to maintain his youth by hanging out with fellow young boys and listening to silly childish stories. When the chief’s girlfriend, Mary enters the scene, however, chief begins to experience some kind of stress. The story of the laughing man can be symbolic of innocence of boyhood age. When Mary arrives, the course of the story wanes as chief loses significant interest in the story even as the laughing man dies (Salinger 83). The story Down at the Dinghy is about two servants talking about their boss’s son, Lionel. Lionel is attempting to escape into the wild even as Boo Boo tries to woo him back. Lionel’s attempted escape is an escape from the pain of losing his uncle and people’s poor perception of his father. To him, the ideals he holds on to have been eroded and lost and as a kid would handle such pressure, he prefers to escape from it all. Boo Boo manages to make him behave as a kid again by coaxing him back to the house. This shows a struggle between gaining adulthood (by escaping a world lost of ideals) and childhood innocence (when he is coaxed back to the house). For Esme-with Love and Squalor is a story about a young girl, Esme’s conversation with Sergeant X before the war. Esme is as innocent and simple as a child of her age should be so that the Sergeant notes that the conversation was so simple that he need not give a rundown (Salinger 115). Pretty Mouth and Green my Eyes is about a phone conversation between Lee and Arthur. Arthur believes that his wife is cheating on him, of which the suspect is likely to be Lee. In innocent pride, Arthur prides in having a perfect job and wife, and when these two fall apart for him (his wife cheating on him and losing a case in court), his entire world crumbles. Unable to accept this, he tells Lee that his wife will come back, an innocent naivety and inability to accept the true reality. De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period is about De Daumier, a young man who is forced to question his spirituality by a painting by a nun in the art school he teaches. All along he thinks he is an adult with secular ideals and convictions. The painting, however, catapults him back to an innocent reality of spirituality (Salinger 278). 2.4. Raise the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour: An Introduction. The story Raise high the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour: An Introduction is another of Salinger’s stories, which is not among the nine stories. The story is narrated by Buddy, the second born of the Glass family. The story is told from Buddy’s perspective about Seymour’s wedding to Muriel. Those attending the wedding, including the matron of honour and other of Muriel’s relatives, ride in Buddy’s car and talk about Seymour and the wedding, oblivious of Buddy’s relations with Seymour. They talk about Seymour’s ‘funny’ behavior, to which Buddy retorts, revealing his relations with Seymour. The story reveals a sense of innocence on the part of buddy who defends his brother from all accusations by the people in the car. he does not hesitate to think that they could be right (Crawford 219). 3.0. Analysis. Holden is caught up between the loss of his innocence and attaining adulthood. he tries both ideals, drinking and fancying with women as an adult. Given the opportunity to be with one, however, he takes refuge in childhood innocence as he prefers his sister’s company. In the end, he says he prefers spending his entire time in a mental institution, away from adult ideals. In the Bananafish story, the fish’s need for food can be translated to Seymour’s desire for innocence. His conversation with Sybil represents his ultimate goal; achieving innocence. After their conversation and his satisfaction of the kind of innocence he gets from her, he cannot fit back into the world of the likes of his wife and in-laws and he decides to end his life in this state of innocence. Ginnie is a mean girl who takes everything for granted and wants her way in everything. After interacting with Franklin, she changes for the better as she lets Selena be with the money and decides to eat the sandwich rather than throw it away. In the laughing man, the story teaches the boys that innocence ends with the end of childhood and the onset of adulthood. Teddy gives a rounding effect to the nine stories as he lives by and dies by his ideals. He does not sacrifice his innocent ideals for adulthood ideals. He is the martyr of all the nine stories showing the powerful effect of the struggle of transformation from childhood to adulthood. 4.0. Conclusion. All of Salinger’s stories in the nine stories are basically about children and their loss of innocence and an effort to gain the innocence back. The characters are all caught up in the struggle of retaining their childhood innocence and growing into adulthood. This is characterized by an interaction between a child and an adult in all the stories. The child acts as the link for the adult to reconnect with his innocence, usually bringing the adult back to some form of innocence. In some stories, it is the child who is struggling with adult and childhood ideals. The child is caught up between losing the childhood ideals and gaining full adult attitude. Some event, however, happens that brings back the child to appreciating the childhood ideals more than adult ideas, thus regaining innocence. Salinger’s depiction of children is that they can both be stupid and wise simultaneously or at the same time. Teddy is a wise child while the protagonist of the laughing man is comical. This is the reality of life as wisdom and madness can also exist in the same context and at the same time. Human beings are constantly fighting within them to find wisdom amidst a world filed with foolishness and madness. Works Cited. Crawford Catherine. If You Really Want to Hear About It: Writers on J. D. Salinger and His Work. New York: Thunder’s Mouth. 2006. Print. Salinger, Jerome. Nine Stories. N.Y: Little Brown and Company. 1953. Print. Read More