The idea of having all your faculties is an interesting one, and one that occurs in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." Specifically, "Bananafish" highlights the lack of faculties in Seymour. Seymour resembles Sergeant X shortly before he gets Esme's letter. He isn't in control of himself, he can't deal with the outside world as a capable adult; in short, he's going insane. Seymour demonstrates one of the potential ways Sergeant X could have gone if Esme's letter had not pulled him out of his rut. The idea of losing one's faculties, of losing control of your life, is repeated in both short stories.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Faculties
I've found that throughout all of Salinger's stories the last sentence sheds the most light on the situation. In "For Esme--With Love and Squalor," the ending sentence is: "You take a sleepy man, Esme, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac--with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact" (173). This sentence first appeared right before the "squalid" part of the story when Esme says: "I hope you return from the war with all your faculties intact" (156).
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I liked your thought on J.D. Salinger ending many of his stories in a thought provoking manner. This is true for many others, but Salinger is one of the few authors I've read that does it consistently.
ReplyDeleteThe most surprising was in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". The man shot himself after chilling out with a little girl. Yes, he was depressed, but WOAH! I would not have seen that coming.
"Uncle Wiggily" also had a really important sentence at at the very end with Eloise pleading to her friend.
Why does Salinger do this?
Of course, the man wants us to think. Beginnings of a story are always important, yet the endings that Salinger create make me want to skip all of the beginning and middle to get to that pivotal moment, the end.
~Luisa
I think one of the reasons Salinger does this is to show how seemingly arbitrary details actually play a large role in the pivotal part of the story. This shows the complexity of his writing. He hints and hints throughput the story in a way that makes it nearly impossible to connect until all is revealed in the final scene. For example, in "Uncle Wiggly" there were constant references to ramona's glasses which seemed a mere object until the final scene where they act as a looking glass through which Elouise can finally see herself.
ReplyDelete-Becca
Yes in Salingers the stories real pivotal moment appears to be at the end, this can lead me also wanting to skip the beginning and middle. But you can miss important details, like a possible connect between pickles and bananas. In "Esme" this story definitely connects to Seymour's story. Both involve young girls, both involve people going a little insane after the war. Clearly both Seymour and Sergeant X had problems, but both were released, probably too early. Also as mentioned before both people were treated like normal after service even though there was some thing wrong with them.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of a pivotal point being at the very end of the story is interesting, and the last lines or paragraphs of almost every story have somehow tied it together. In Bananafish, though, the last few lines actually confused me instead of tying it together. It took a while to understand just why Seymour felt he had to kill himself. It is interesting how similar these two stories are, yet their endings leave the reader in a totally different mindset. Maybe Salinger is trying to allude to the fact that similar scenarios can pan out extremely differently, given the little details that happen in the beginning and middle of the stories.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Salinger is big with putting important details at the end of stories, leaving the reader with a lot to think about. I like this style of writing because of how you feel finishing the story. I also see this "ending with a bang" style in Down at the Dinghy when Boo Boo and Lionel race and Lionel wins. In that story it shows Boo Boo is taking time to connect with him, and it also gives you a sense of closure that Lionel will be okay. The other story I can connect this to is Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut when Eloise has her nervous breakdown and quotes Walt at the end of the story. It seems that Salinger is big with revealing character's emotions at the end of the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what was said so far about Salinger's tendency to do this. It is certainly odd seeing as it is a departure from the normal structure for a story where it goes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Salinger tends to put his climactic moment at the end of the story and then not include the falling action and a resolution at all. I think this tends to leave the story more open-ended and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions.
ReplyDelete