Re: 9 stories-eskimos
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Sat, 31 Oct 1998 16:38:03 +1100
Hmmm ... like I said before, this story is SO difficult to come to any
conclusion on. I have a momentary lapse of confidence and have that
terrible thought that recurrs from time to time : is he hiding between the
pages laughing his head off at us? But you can't let yourself believe this.
Anyway ... I'll have a stab at this. I'm not totally sure that Ginnie had a
crush on Franklin. Maybe she thought she did, though. Because the culture
that she lives in is not one that offers a possibility for connection.
Selena and Ginnie are not what you would call `connected' (as far as we
know the only commonality they share is the same tennis class) ... although
they would probably describe each other as `my friend Ginnie/Selena' in
that very superficial, insincere way people do. When Ginnie meets Franklin,
for whatever reason she feels a connection and, as any postwar girl fed a
diet of women's magazines, may believe that this connection must be a
crush. Thus, when she finds that Franklin already has a sort of connection
with Eric, she disallows herself belief in the possibility of connection.
It is even entirely possible that Ginnie doesn't know that homosexuality
exists, which would make this connection between Franklin and Eric even
more odd and repellent to her.
`Everything eventually will fail' is the message of the story, as implied
by the title and its context in the story. Everyone is in a state of
shellshock, waiting for the next war to come, and connections can only ever
be tentative because they will all be broken by this hypothetical war. New
life (in the symbol of the Easter chick) is reluctantly thrown away because
it is unfeasable. Any temporary sense of hope or connection (embodied by
Franklin) is quickly proved unfeasable.
Boy, Salinger really threw us a curveball on this one, didn't he? (:
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
> > In class we came to the conclusion that Ginnie may have had a change of
> > heart because of the feelings (crush) Ginnie developed for Franklin.
And
> > she develops this crush partly because her sister Joan (the snob) had
no
> > interest in Franklin. (A little sibling rivalry) Joan did not want to
> > have anything to do with Franklin, so Ginnie could get back at her
sister
> > by getting together with Franklin. Does anyone else see this? I could
> > understand this happening however, I don't see the textual evidence in
the
> > story. I don't see where Ginnie has a conflict with her sister. Sure
> > probably almost all sisters have conflict, and we could probably assume
> > however I don't see the evidence in the book. Anyone else think
> > different? Do you think this is why Ginnie made such a 180 turn?
> > STILL TRYING TO FIGURE THE WHOLE THING OUT!!!
> > help