Re: a quibble about 'for esme'

On Fri, Oct 25, 2002 at 03:48:58PM -0400, Jim Rovira wrote:

> My memory of "For Esme" is imperfect -- he was indeed married when he
> received the watch from Esme?

Yes, he is married -- remember how Esme asks the narrator about his
wife, then frets that she is being too personal. I think she asks him
if he loves his wife very much, then worries that she is being too
personal; he reassures her that if she is being too personal, he will
tell her. (But you can tell he won't -- you can tell how much he
welcomes the "intrusion," and genuinely welcomes that rare touch of
humanity he finds in the young girl Esme.)

> I remember the opening lines of the story left the impression of affection
> toward his wife, but I think you complicate that pretty nicely. Is
> Salinger just down on housewives (that NYT article you posted reminded me
> of the wife in Bananafish), or does he use that particular kind of banality
> as an analog for adult society?

I don't think Salinger has anything against housewives in his work -- in
fact, neither the wife in Esme nor the wife in Bananafish (esPECially the
wife in the latter story, to use a Salingerism, as appropriate) -- could
in any way be construed as "housewives" in any sense of that term,
derogatory or otherwise.

--tim

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Received on Fri Oct 25 19:28:09 2002