Re: Elaine
Colin Pink (colin@cpink.demon.co.uk)
Sun, 11 Jul 1999 22:22:28 +0100
In message <a5812b45.24b96317@aol.com>, Squeila@aol.com writes
>I just read Elaine for the first time, and I found it...well...disturbing. I
>found it to be the most disturbing of any of the Salinger stories I've read
>thus far. Any insights?
Your email prompted me to re-read 'Elaine'. I can see why you find it
disturbing. However I think the fact that it is disturbing is more to
do with it being a poorly constructed story than with any profound
intention on the writer's part.
With this story I feel the author is out of sympathy with his
characters. JDS usually writes about people from the same privileged,
wealthy milieu that he came from but on this occasion he attempts to
write about poor people, and despite some good dialogue, always a strong
point in JDS work, I feel he can't quite overcome his own distance from
his subject matter. One feels that he is sneering at his characters and
the paucity of their existence.
Also the end of the story is too abrupt and the reader is insufficiently
prepared for it. There is no motivation for the mother hitting the
mother-in-law and the compliance of Elaine is unrealistic.
The strength of the story is where he tries to indicate the influence of
mass media on people's attitudes and the deadening effect it has on
their lives. The way they tend to prefer the illusory world of the
cinema to their real lives, and given the nature of their lives who can
blame them, is quite ahead of its time. Baudrillard in short trousers.
But ultimately JDS unsympathetic attitude to the lack of intelligence of
Elaine leaves one feeling that he is dealing with a subject he cannot
really get to grips with, the writer is altogether too 'superior' to his
subject in order to engage with it fully.
--
Colin Pink