Subject: Re: Smoking !
From: Will Hochman (Hochman@scsu.ctstateu.edu)
Date: Sun Dec 10 2000 - 02:37:42 GMT
I went back to a few stories by way of this strand's subject because
I thought of two smokers in Salinger's fiction when we started this
discussion. The first one was from Salinger's second published
story, "The Young Folks," which begins with "About eleven o'clock,
Lucille Henderson, observing that her party was soaring at the proper
height, and just having been smiled at by Jack Delroy, forced herself
to glance over in the direction of Edna Phillips, who since eight
o'clock had been sitting in the big red chair, smoking cigarettes and
yodeling hellos and wearing a very bright eye which young men were
not bothering to catch." Cigarettes are a fairly important objective
correlative for Edna--it's about all she can do that's hot--the rest
of her act is pretty depressing as she tries to use phoniness to
appear attractive. But the Salinger smoker de jour is really Bessie.
In "Zooey," we have a lady who constantly smokes king sized
cigarettes. Whiles she invades Zooey's bath with motherly concern he
worries she has five cigarettes already lit...
Now here's the curve and I'm afraid if you are looking for a
connection to smoking...all I can say is it's up in smoke [Scottie
Warning: meant as a joke! Don't let smoke get in your eyes!] unless I
use some literary flame and explain what an objective correlative is
and does in literature...well, it's sometimes what somking is in
Salinger's fiction...he'll use an object (take for example the cigar
end that ends RHTRBC) to correlate to something about a character
(the bride's father's uncle) to maybe leap to something like the gift
of the cigar end to Seymour reflecting the principle of deaf/mute
love, or perhaps reflecting advice from Buddy that if he is going to
be happy with Muriel he'll be better off deaf/mute...or whatever
meaning you configure with your reading.
Anyhow, while reading "Zooey" for Bessie's smoking, I came across
lines I'd forgotten and wished I hadn't...maybe the last poem Seymour
wrote can do the trick:
"The little girl on the plane/ Who turned her doll's head around/ to
look at me."
Buddies, do you see how the doll's head is an object that correlates
to the little girl? Maybe the double little girl image reflects
Seymour's recent ocean interaction with Sybil in APDFB?
Hey Tim, did you know Bananafish can smoke underwater?
will
PS: Yes, I smoke and fiddle with the contents of ashtrays!
-- Will Hochman Assistant Professor of English & Composition Co-Coordinator Southern Connecticut State University 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515 203 392 5024- * Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message * UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 18:02:57 GMT