Nine Stories :: essays papers

Nine StoriesJ D Salinger wrote Nine Stories with the same brilliance as Catcher InThe Rye. His elan is so unique and complex that all of his shortstories are truly enjoyable. Two of those stories are A perfect dayfor a bananafish and For Esme with love and squalor. The of importcharacters in both of these stories, Seymour and Sargent X, have servedin World War II, and the fighting has taken its toll on them. Theirphysiological well being was sacrificed and as a result they are nolonger the same people they were onwards. 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 men 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 preserveSeymour have different perspectives of life. Muriel is acarefree and complacent person, while her husband is quitestrange and slightly paranoid. His paranoia is illustrated whenhe looses it in the hotel elevator, I have ii normal feet andI cant see the slightest God-damned reason any peerless should stareat them. Muriel, how forever, is unacquainted with Seymours wildbreakdowns. She is rather confident that Seymour is perfectly of sound mind(predicate) as she reports to her mother on the telephone. Murieldoesnt know about this side of Seymour because he has becomealienated from her aft(prenominal) the war. Their personalities dontmatch anymore, if they ever did, and he is seeking some sort of consciousness that he knows Muriel can not provide. Seymoursrelationship with Sybil is making up for Muriels shortcomings.Seymour is looking for the understanding of a child and thelove of an adult. He wants someone who will not judge him. Herea lizes the impossibility of his desires with Sybil when hegets a loud reaction from her after kissing the arch of her foot.Seymour has no one who understands him, which causes his feeling 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 bank you return from the war withall your faculties intact. Sgt. X in fact would not havereturned with all of his faculties intact if it were not for