Nine Stories :: essays papers

Nine StoriesJ D Salinger wrote Nine Stories with the equal brilliance as Catcher InThe Rye. His look is so unique and complex that alone of his shortstories are authentically enjoyable. Two of those stories are A perfect dayfor a bananafish and For Esme with get laid and squalor. The maincharacters in both of these stories, Seymour and Sargent X, have servedin World warfare II, and the fighting has taken its toll on them. Theirphysiological well existence was sacrificed and as a result they are nolonger the same(p) people they were before. Both feel alienated from thepeople in their life, the same people they had loved before the war.The isolation the war has caused is carried over into their lives, andit caused these hands to search for new forms of comfort and security, inthe respective forms of Sybil and Esme.In A perfect day for a bananafish, Muriel and her husbandSeymour have different perspectives of life. Muriel is acarefree and complacent person, while her husband is preferablystrange and slimly paranoid. His paranoia is illustrated whenhe looses it in the hotel elevator, I have two normal feet andI houset see the slightest God-damned reason anyone should stareat them. Muriel, how incessantly, is uninformed with Seymours wildbreakdowns. She is rather confident that Seymour is perfectlysane as she reports to her mother on the telephone. Murieldoesnt know about this side of Seymour because he has becomealienated from her after the war. Their personalities dontmatch anymore, if they ever did, and he is seeking some sort ofunderstanding that he knows Muriel can not provide. Seymoursrelationship with Sybil is making up for Muriels shortcomings.Seymour is tone for the understanding of a child and thelove of an adult. He wants someone who volition not judge him. Herea lizes the impossibility of his desires with Sybil when hegets a deafening reaction from her after kissing the arch of her foot.Seymour has no one who understands him, which causes his vox populi ofisolation. He can no longer relate to the world he lives in and with noone to provide comfort and security he is driven to suicide.Sargent X has an interesting relationship with Esme in ForEsme with love and squalor. Esme is quite aware of the horrorsof war and says to Sgt. X, I hope you return from the war withall your faculties sacrosanct. Sgt. X in fact would not havereturned with all of his faculties intact if it were not for