Re: With Love and Squalor
MEPIERCE (mepierce@sfasu.edu)
Fri, 19 Feb 1999 10:33:26 -0600
blah b b blah wrote:
>
> It's a DANGEROUS thing to try to Explain to an English Prof a story
> he/she didn't "get," but I guess I can tell you what I "got" out of it...
> :)
>
> It's the With Love and Squalor thing. You need to contrast the
> inconsiderate boorishness of the man visiting Sgt. X, and the violent
> aftereffects of War upon Sgt. X, with Esme's charm, consideration, and,
> above all else, love. She saved him by sending him that watch. It was
> nothing more than saying, "you mean something to me," when everyone else
> -- the whole world, in fact -- was saying, "your feelings and life are
> meaningless."
>
> Esme was an oasis of love and civility in the middle of a WW II
> battlefield.
>
> Jim
>
>
Thanks Jim--I do appreciate your analysis--beautifully written.
But I still can't feel the magic :( I am surprised by own lack of
compassion for these characters. I promise to give the story another
read this summer. I'm not sure I "felt the magic" of Catcher upon the
first reading either.
But now Teddy is another matter. . .
--
M.E. Pierce
Dept. of English, SFASU
http://TITAN.SFASU.EDU/~f_pierceme/
"I loaf and invite my soul. . ." Uncle Walt