Jerome Salinger Essay, Research Paper

Born on January 1, 1919, Jerome David Salinger was to go one of America & # 8217 ; s

greatest modern-day writers. In 1938 Salinger briefly attended Ursinus College

in Pennsylvania where he wrote a column, & # 8220 ; Skipped Diploma, & # 8221 ; which featured

film reappraisals for his college newspaper. Salinger made his authorship introduction when he

published his first short narrative, & # 8220 ; The Young Folks, & # 8221 ; in Whit Burnett & # 8217 ; s

Story magazine ( Gallic, xiii ) . He was paid merely 25 dollars. In 1939, at

the age of 20, Salinger had non acquired any readers. He subsequently enrolled in a

originative composing category at Columbia University. Salinger was really much interested

in going an histrion and a dramatist, which was rather uneven because he would

subsequently in life become a hermit ( Wenke, 3 ) . Salinger adjusted his authorship manner

to suit the literary market place. He was composing for money and began composing for

magazines like Good Housekeeping and Mademoiselle. Many of Salinger & # 8217 ; s

characters have alone character traits. & # 8220 ; Salinger presents a figure of

narratives that consider characters who become involved in degrading, frequently bogus

societal contexts, & # 8221 ; states a major critic ( Wenke, 7 ) . These characters are frequently

immature and have experienced a batch of emotional convulsion. They have been rejected

by society and chiefly categorized as & # 8220 ; misfits. & # 8221 ; This disaffection of the

personality is frequently viewed as a mark of failing by society when in fact the

castawaies finally gain strength from their experiences as shown in Nine

Narratives, The Catcher in the Rye, and Franny and Zooey. Salinger is stating a

narrative of the human status in its world through his novels. Nine Stories is a

aggregation of short narratives of people who are unsure of the following way to take

in life. They are lonely, needy, and seeking for love. One of these narratives,

& # 8220 ; A Perfect Day for Bananafish, & # 8221 ; is the narrative of a immature twosome who try to

understand their life together and the true significance of love. Seymour Glass has

merely been released from the Army Hospital and he is unable to set to life

with his & # 8220 ; crass married woman Muriel amidst the munificent and vulgar ambiance of their

post-war 2nd honeymoon & # 8221 ; ( Gwynn & A ; Blotner, 19 ) . It has frequently been called

& # 8220 ; the loveless tunnel of love. & # 8221 ; Salinger portrays Muriel in the first portion of

the narrative as superficial. She believes that everything and everyone operates on

her clip: She was a miss who for a pealing phone dropped precisely nil. She

looked as if her phone had been pealing continually of all time since she had reached

pubescence. Muriel has an apathetic attitude about life. She seems simple and

really insecure. Muriel finds it funny that her hubby calls her & # 8220 ; Miss

Religious Tramp of 1948. & # 8221 ; This tells the reader that she lacks self- regard.

Her simple attitude shows when she is speaking to her female parent on the phone about

traveling to Bingo one dark: & # 8220 ; Anyway, after Bingo he and his married woman asked me if I

wouldn & # 8217 ; Ts like to fall in them for a drink. So I did. His married woman was atrocious. You

retrieve that atrocious dinner frock we saw in Bonwit & # 8217 ; s window? The one you said

that you & # 8217 ; vitamin Ds have to hold a bantam, tiny. & # 8221 ; Muriel implies that she disliked the

lady because of what she was have oning. She alienates herself from society by

believing that she is better that everyone else. Because of Muriel & # 8217 ; s

personality, Seymour can non confide in her or experience any love in his matrimony.

This is why he turns to the small miss at the beach for company. Seymour

finds a friend and a hearer in Sybil. But the friendly relationship of Sybil can non repair

Seymour & # 8217 ; s broken bosom. He additions some strength in himself when he finds a

friend in Sybil, but he can non look to acquire past his failed matrimony. Seymour is

so despairing for love that he commits self-destruction: Then he went over to one of the

pieces of baggage, opened it, and from under a heap of trunkss and singlets he

took out an Ortgies caliber 7.65 automatic. He released the magazine, looked at

it, so reinserted it. He cocked the piece. Then he went over and sat down on

the unoccupied twin bed, looked at the miss, aimed the handgun and fired a slug

through his right temple. & # 8220 ; Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut & # 8221 ; is a narrative about a

immature adult female who tries to do sense out of all the confusion in her life. Eloise

finds a loyal and trusty friend in Mary Jane. They are on the same way in

life. Salinger suggests that they have stayed friends for so long because

neither of them graduated from college. Eloise left college because she was

caught with a soldier in the lift. Mary Jane left college because she was to

get married a soldier in gaol. Eloise feels like an foreigner in her ain household. She

makes a remark about her girl looking more like her hubby and his female parent.

She says that when the three of them are together they look like threes.

Ramona, Elosie & # 8217 ; s girl, appears to be the lone individual who is free to be who

she wants to be. Ramona has a childlike, self-generated inventive power and she

is on the brink of these qualities being taken from her by her female parent who is

referred to as & # 8220 ; Uncle Wiggily ( Bloom, 83 ) . Uncle Wiggily represents a individual

that is standing in the manner of Ramona being her true ego. In kernel, Eloise

enviousnesss her girl Ramona. Ramona is the 1 who does as she pleases, such as

rubing herself and picking her olfactory organ at any clip. Ramona is the stronger of

the two, mentally. Eloise resents Ramona & # 8217 ; s fanciful friend Jimmy Jimmerono.

One critic explains, & # 8220 ; But Jimmy stands in the same relation to Ramona as Walt

does to Eloise & # 8211 ; a symbol of the secret image of love, unhampered by atrocious

world & # 8221 ; ( Gwynn & A ; Blotner, 22 ) . Walt is Eloise & # 8217 ; s old love. Ramona

shows Jimmy & # 8217 ; s physical features as being alone, while Walt is

alone because of his wit and tenderness. At the terminal of the narrative Eloise had

still non been saved. When she is intoxicated she feels free to be herself and show

herself. Eloise learns the true significance of love with her past experience with

Walt. She learns to love herself and is willing to travel on in life knowing that

it will acquire better with clip. Salinger & # 8217 ; s greatest chef-d’oeuvre, The Catcher in

the Rye, has served as a & # 8220 ; firestorm for contention and argument & # 8221 ; ( Lomazoff,

1 ) . The manner that Salinger portrayed Holden Caulfield has been a factor in the

controversial nature of this book. Holden is a strong-willed individual with

strong-willed sentiments of the universe and the people. His eldritch personality

makes the reader want to oppugn his saneness. Holden has reached a point in his

life where he doesn & # 8217 ; t attention any longer. He has flunked out of three Pennsylvania

homework schools. This symbolizes that Holden is non genuinely ready for the grownup universe

even though he believes that he is. He refuses to work to his full potency.

Holden is a small boy playing grown-up. He is egoistic and really chesty:

Then I tried to acquire them in a small intelligent conversation, but it was

practically impossible, you had to writhe their weaponries. You could barely state which

was the stupidest of the three of them. He puts other people & # 8217 ; s societal behaviour

down every bit if to state that he is of higher intelligence, & # 8220 ; They didn & # 8217 ; t ask for me

to sit down at their tabular array & # 8211 ; largely because they were nescient & # 8211 ; but I sat down

anyway. & # 8221 ; This shows Holden & # 8217 ; s impatient nature. Another uneven quality of

Holden & # 8217 ; s is that he believes that the universe we live in and the people that we

unrecorded with are bogus. An early illustration of this in the novel is when Old Spencer

is stating Holden about how great his parents are and Holden responds in a

negative manner: & # 8220 ; Grand & # 8221 ; there is a word I truly hate. It & # 8217 ; s a hypocrite. I

could merely vomit every clip I hear it. The halfway issue of Holden & # 8217 ; s perceptual experience

of falsity in this universe is his inability to pass on with other people. He

wants to be a lone wolf and remain by himself: & # 8220 ; I figured that I could acquire a occupation at

a filling station someplace, seting gas in other people & # 8217 ; s autos. I didn & # 8217 ; T

care what sort of occupation it was, though. Just so people don & # 8217 ; T cognize me and I

Don & # 8217 ; t cognize anybody. I thought what I & # 8217 ; d make was, I & # 8217 ; 500 pretend I was one of

those deaf deaf-and-dumb persons. That manner I wouldn & # 8217 ; Ts have to hold any god dike stupid useless

conversation with anybody. If anybody wanted to state me something, they & # 8217 ; vitamin Ds have

to compose it on a piece of paper and jostle it over to me. They & # 8217 ; d acquire bored as

snake pit making that after a piece, and so I & # 8217 ; vitamin D be through with holding

conversations for the remainder of my life. Everybody & # 8217 ; d think I was merely a hapless

deaf-and-dumb asshole and they & # 8217 ; vitamin D leave me entirely & # 8230 ; I & # 8217 ; d cook all my ain nutrient, and & lt ; Br…

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