An Essay on Esme
Ian Mayes (ianmayes@rocketmail.com)
Wed, 15 Apr 1998 12:34:32 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings fellow J.D. Salinger nuts!
This is my first e-mail to this list, so I guess I am
getting off to a bad starting by beginning it all by
sending a piece of my writing... :-)
However, this essay that I wrote for my English class
I do beleive might be of interest to at least one
person in this group. Even if you are not interested
in this, you STILL can help me out by giving me some
more ideas... This is due tommorow, so I seriously
doubt that I will receive that many ideas, but what
the hey... I personally really don't think that this
is a good piece if writing on my part, I certainly
have written better than this, so if you decide to
totally trash me for this, I will understand... :-)
- Ian Mayes
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Love or Squalor?
The story "For Esme - With Love and Squalor" by J.D.
Salinger is considered his
best story ( Kazin 50) and the best story within the
"9 Stories" collection ( Lundquist
112). It is also said that this is Salinger's "first
explicit statement of what is wrong with
his heroes." ( Wiegand 129). However, whether this
story is focused on "love" or
"squalor" has never been commonly agreed upon. For
all the depressing notions and sad
turns of events, there seems to be equally as many
positive notions and events, both of
which play a vital part within this story. It is my
belief that this story symbolizes "love"
and it's influence within human life.
To begin, let's examine the negative qualities
within this story. The life-less choir
led by the dissonant choir coach, the deaths of both
of Esme and Charles's parents, the
near-death of Esme's aunt, the nervous breakdown and
sickness of Sergeant X, the
"animality" of Americans, the blatant insensitivity
of Sergeant X's brother, Corporal Clay
and Bulling, the depressing "squalid" atmosphere of
the house in Bavaria and the
omnipresent atmosphere of World War II certainly
gives the entire story a certain dark
"squalid" feel to it. The scene is certainly not
helped when "Clay's insensitive girl-friend,
Loretta, a psychology major, blames Sergeant X's
breakdown not on the war but on a
lifelong instability and yet excuses Clay's sadistic
act of killing of a cat as 'temporary
insanity' brought on by the war." (French 99-100)
These aspects certainly appear to beat
Sergeant X down to nothingness and leave him
seemingly on the edge of yet another
nervous breakdown.
The final crushing blow to X's inner psyche appears
to arrive when he reads the
inscription in a German book "Dear God, life is
hell." ( Salinger 105). Yet, Sergeant X is
still able to withstand this and is even able to
respond to it. Eventually X is able to write a
quote from Dostoevsky underneath the previous
inscription "Fathers and teachers, I
ponder 'What is hell?" I maintain that it is the
suffering of being unable to love."
(Salinger 105) It is precisely at that moment where
most critics say that the notion of
"love" clearly enters this story and that the core
issues in this story that are behind X and
all humanity are indicated. Also, by the very fact
that Sergeant X was able to respond like
that, perhaps we can view the negative statement,
maybe even the entire cast of negative
events within this story, as being ultimately a
positive constructive force. However,
immediately after Sergeant X inscribes his Dostoevsky
quote, X notices that his writing is
almost entirely illegible and that all his work and
effort has been useless against this
personal psychological assault on him. As a result,
Sergeant X does not acquire the "God
of redemption" (129) that William Wiegard says he
needs.
After that point Corporal Clay enters the room by
banging the door open. This
first act by him is followed by many others that show
Clay as being an insensitive,
and even hateful individual. It is this behavior
which leads many critics to believing that
Clay represents these aspects of life. Where Clay
represents the negative hateful aspects
of life, Robert Browne contends that Esme, Charles,
and Sergeant X represent the loving
aspects of life. For example, Browne points to the
instances where Charles wants to kiss
Sergeant X good-bye despite all his previous rude
actions, Esme's desire to be more
compassionate and the fact that Esme notes that X has
an "extremely sensitive face" (
Salinger 95) as showing how these three characters
have escaped the hell that Dostoevsky
spoke of. (149-150)
Warren French takes the notions that Browne comes up
with and expands upon
them by saying,
Just before the appearance of his much acclaimed
novel, The Catcher in the Rye,
Salinger succeeded in creating in Esme and in
Corporal Clay perfect
personifications of the "nice" and the "phony" worlds
as he envisioned them; he
also recorded one of the rare victories of the "nice"
over the "phony." (100)
French later goes on to explain how he feels that
beneath the hardened tormented exteriors
of Esme, Charles and Sergeant X are compassionate
hearts whereas beneath the "smiling
'photogenic' surface" of Corporal Clay there is a
"spiritual void." ( 101) With Sergeant X
representing love and Corporal Clay representing
hate, a "spiritual void" so to speak, then
we can view the fact that they fought together in
World War II and rode the same jeep
together as representing the combined essences of
love and hate working together to form
Humanity's existence.
Taking this notion that Esme, Charles, and Sergeant
X represent love, we can see
how it applies to a broader human context. For
example, Ihad Hassan says that "the
horrendous social fact of our century and the
outstanding spiritual motive of the age -
genocide and love - are united in the history of a
single American soldier, Staff Sergeant
X." (148) George Steiner later goes on to bring this
notion down to a more personal level.
Steiner is quoted as saying that "For Esme - With
Love and Squalor" is "perhaps the best
study to come out of the war of the way in which the
greater facts of hatred play havoc in
the private soul." ( 83)
James Lundquist then runs with the idea of the story
representing the private soul
by illustrating how Zen Buddhism plays a part. For
example, Lundquist points out how
Charles' riddle represents the process of how one is
supposed to search for answers, how
the statement made by the Nazi in the German book is
nothing but dead-end propaganda,
(100-101) and even how the meeting in the tea house
is symbolic of a Buddhist tea
ceremony. (112)
Therefore, we can take all these notions derived
from the events in this story and
see how they all end up representing a quest for love
and spiritual growth. Basically it
ends up as a "good vs. evil" dichotomy. Charles,
Esme, and Sergeant X representing the
"good" aspects of love and spiritual fulfillment and
Corporal Clay representing the "evil"
aspects of hatred, insensitivity, and "phony." And we
can see how through the ending
events of this story, how ultimately an act of
"love" from Esme can win the inner
struggle against "Squalor."
Works Cited
Browne, Robert M. "In Defense of Esme." J. D.
Salinger and the Critics. Eds.
William F. Belcher and James W. Lee. Belmont,
California: Wadsworth, 1964.
149-150.
French, Warren. J. D. Salinger. Boston: G. K.
Hall, 1976.
Hassan, Ihab. "The Rare Quixotic Gesture."
Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait.
Ed. Henry Anatole Grunwald. New York: Harper,
1963. 138-163.
Kazin, Alfred. "Everybody's Favorite." Salinger:
A Critical and Personal Portrait.
Ed. Henry Anatole Grunwald. New York: Harper,
1963. 43-52.
Lundquist, James. J. D. Salinger. New York:
Fredrick Ungar, 1979.
Salinger, J. D. "For Esme - With Love and Squalor."
Nine Stories. New York:
Bantam, 1964.
Steiner, George. "The Salinger Industry." Salinger:
A Critical and Personal Portrait.
Ed. Henry Anatole Grunwald. New York: Harper,
1963. 82-85.
Wiegand, William. "The Knighthood of J. D.
Salinger." Salinger: A Critical and
Personal Portrait. Ed. Henry Anatole Grunwald. New
York: Harper, 1963.
116-136.
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