Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes
Brendan McKennedy (the.tourist@mailexcite.com)
Sat, 13 Dec 1997 22:35:31 -0700
I agree with a few people that "Pretty Mouth" is primarily about the man in bed,
and his use of people and his questionable moral role in their lives, but I have
to disagree that the guy on the phone was simply trying to save face.
A lot of Salinger's stories--
"Uncle Wiggly" and "Franny",
as well, of course, as "Catcher"--
end with nervous breakdowns, due to
the duplicities of upper class life,
as well as spiritual/moral crisis in
a world that ignores the
responsibilities of the spirit.
I get a very bad feeling from the man
on the phone at the end. I don't
think he really knows that he's lying
to the man in bed. I think he's finally
been pushed over an Edge, over
Holden's cliff, maybe--or more
accurately, Mr. Antolini's cliff--
and now he's sort of reeling in this new sense of nothingness. He's finally let
go of reality.
I get the feeling that the guy on
the phone is either about to sink into complete delusion, or kill himself.
It's about the madness that is
the product of the American priveleged.
Think of "Gatsby": the guy who worked
in the gas station, who, suspecting his wife's infidelity, begins to worship the
eyeglasses billboard behind his house.
It's possible to just read Salinger and
enjoy it--in fact, I highly recommend
it, as "Pretty Mouth" shares status
with "Eskimos" as some of the most brilliant, entertaining dialogue ever written--
but once you penetrate that skin of
enjoyment and dip your feet into the
characterization, no one is simple
enough that they just lie to save face.
That's what I think, anyway.
Brendan
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