Thematic Obsessions of J.D. Salinger

            The thematic obsessions of an author can communicate many things, such as the author’s personal opinions or fascinations with life. The legendary author J.D. Salinger had a continuous literary obsession with age. Salinger’s young characters have a deeper insight into life than his adult characters. This expresses the idea that as children turn into adults, they lose their great ability to think for themselves and begin conform to society’s expectations and standards.

            The character Eloise in “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut” by J.D. Salinger is a primary example of an adult who has lost the passion and happiness that she once had as a young woman. Although Eloise is still young, she is married and has a child named Ramona. Throughout the short story it is obvious that she “[looks] back to [her] younger years as a time of joy and happiness and [seems] dissatisfied with [her] current [life]” (Bouchard). Her feeling of regret becomes apparent during the story of her first love, Walt, who died during World War II. She says of Walt, “he was the only boy I ever knew that could make me laugh. I mean really laugh” (Salinger, “Nine Stories” 28). Walt, for Eloise, symbolizes her youth. This youth represents a time in which she was truly happy, unlike her present state. This emphasizes the common theme in Salinger’s writings, that as a person ages, he or she loses the happiness, satisfaction, and, in Eloise’s case, love and laughter that was so prevalent in his or her life. Eloise also exposes how adults conform to society’s expectations. Instead of living a loving marriage, she settles for a husband who she clearly does not care for. When her friend asks her why she married her husband, Eloise responds, “oh, God! I don’t know. He told me he loved Jane Austen [...] I found out after we were married that he hadn’t even read one of her books” (Salinger, “Nine Stories” 32). Obviously, Eloise merely married Lew because it is society’s expectation that once a woman reaches a certain age, she must get married and have children. Such conformity makes her extremely discontented, though. By Salinger making it so apparent how miserable Eloise is with her husband, he directly contrasts this relationship with the bond she had with Walt. The relationship with Walt symbolizes her past, her youth, and her bliss. The relationship with Lew symbolizes her present, her adulthood, and her dissatisfaction. By providing two symbolic relationships, Salinger directly shows how growing up decays the things that once brought joy. Love turns to boredom, and youth turns into adulthood.

            Esmé, the young girl in the short story, “For Esmé - With Love and Squalor” by Salinger, represents the children created by Salinger that symbolize the innocence of youth. This story is essentially about how a simple conversation with a brilliant little girl brings sanity to a soldier experiencing the aftermath of World War II. The narrator meets Esmé, though, before he has been drastically affected by the war. He is in a training course in England and has some spare time before departing. He eventually has a long conversation with the child, and he gives her his information so she can write to him (Salinger, “Nine Stories” 92-102). The reader discovers during the conversation how intelligent the little girl is as she uses advanced diction such as “squalor” and demonstrates her bilingual abilities, speaking in French and English (Salinger, “Nine Stories” 100; 101). Esmé also demonstrates the sincerity of children, asking the soldier, “do you think you’ll be coming here again in the immediate future?” (Salinger, “Nine Stories” 101). The genuine and obvious want to see this soldier again is clearly seen through this simple question of the child. This is a human who values the conversation of another and such genuine interest in the soldier and kindness is what will eventually save the soul and sanity of this man. Esmé brings humanity and hope to a man who will soon be distressed. The story then travels forward to a time when the war has just ended, and the same soldier has clearly been affected mentally by the war. In this portion of the story, the soldier seems disturbed in the mind, but after reading a letter form Esmé he says “then, suddenly, almost ecstatically, he felt sleepy. You take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a change of again becoming a man with all his fac- with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact” (Salinger, “Nine Stories” 114). Esmé’s kind heartedness so greatly affects the mentally shaken soldier that she brings him peace simply through a letter. His memory of time with her brings relief to him, something that, to Salinger, only a child can do. This is apparent because before the soldier reads Esmé’s letter, he has a conversation with a fellow comrade (Salinger, “Nine Stories” 106-111). All this conversation does is make him more tense and confused. This is because his comrade is also an adult, also someone who has been tainted with the destruction age brings. But Esmé, in her childlike wholesomeness, is able to remind the soldier of a more peaceful time. As Bouchard says, “in "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor" it is precisely Esmé's purity and kindness that saves the damaged soldier from his own jaded mind.” Without Esmé being a child, though, this would be impossible in Salinger’s writings.

            Although Salinger’s opinions of adults and children may not always be true, it is plausible that the youth of each generation brings a refreshing morality that adults often lose. This is a constant idea in many of Salinger’s works, one that often causes great controversy and discussion. Yet, it is important to recognize the refreshing purity that children can bring to the world.

Works Cited:

Bouchard, Jennifer. "Literary Contexts In Fiction: J.D. Salinger's "Nine Stories." Literary Contexts In Short Stories   Collections: J. D. Salinger's 'Nine Stories' (2008): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.     

Salinger, J.D. Nine Stories. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1991.