Research Paper on "Salinger Tracing Expressions of Post-War Trauma"

Research Paper 8 pages (2368 words) Sources: 3

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Salinger

Tracing Expressions of Post-War Trauma and Sincere Isolation in the Works of J.D. Salinger

War is a subject that is often in the news and the broader public attention these days, seen by some as an unfortunate necessity in maintaining order and freedom and by others us unnecessary violence, dominance, and culture through brute force. Regardless of the merits or the philosophical/ethical standing of war, however, certain facts of war are indisputable: war changes the individuals who live through it, both as soldiers and as civilians caught up either directly or indirectly through their exposure to war. Some people might seem more immune to these effects than others, but the violence and destruction that is an inherent aspect of modern warfare cannot help but affect those individuals that are used or involved in the making of war, and in turn influencing those connected to these individuals.

Though best known for demonstrating the adolescent angst of an era in his novel The Catcher in the Rye, several of J.D. Salinger's contemporary short stories draw more directly on his experiences in World War II, demonstrating both his complete disillusionment with many aspects of humanity and his extreme sincerity in his representations of certain relationships and desires to communicate. Salinger accomplishes this juxtaposition of disillusionment and sincerity in a variety of ways, but this accomplishment essentially depends on the isolation of one primary character in each of his stories. An examination of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," "For Esme -- With Love and Squalor," and Franny and Zooey reveals the effect of Salinger's war service on his view of humanity.

Recruited into the U.S. infantry after the outbreak of World War II, J.D. Salinger had a very active and eventful military career, for which he was favorably recognized by the military but which also left him with lasting emotional and psychological scars. Salinger quit publishing in 1965, and remained highly reclusive and isolated from both the media and the public at large almost entirely until his death earlier this year. Though it is of course impossible to say with certainty what might have been the full cause of such a complex and extreme reaction to the fame he encountered through his writing, Salinger's military service definitely had a profound effect on his outlook on life. A brief examination of Salinger's military life and three examples from his published works quite clearly demonstrate the way in which the military affected Salinger and the way he -- and his characters -- dealt with the rest of the world.

The War Years

J.D. Salinger was still fairly young when he was drafted into the United States' Army, but his intelligence achieved him a position in instructor's school, after which he began training cadets in the air corps (Eger 2010). Following this job, which was relatively easy and entirely removed form combat, Salinger went back to the United States to train in counter intelligence, and upon completion of this phase of his training he was assigned to the 12th Infantry Regiment, Fourth Division. This was one of the many infantry regiments that stormed Utah beach on D-Day, the famed and famously bloody landing of the allied troops on the German-occupied beaches of Normandy that marked the beginning of the end of the war in Europe, and also marked Salinger's entrance into the bloodier aspects of war (Eger 2010).

During his time spent in combat in Europe, Salinger also managed to experience some of the even greater horrors that World War II had to offer. His regiment assisted in liberating the concentration camp at Dachau, one of the several sites at which massive amounts of "undesirables" -- largely Jews, but including many other groups -- that had been rounded up by the Nazi's were routinely exterminated in a highly organized and cold-blooded fashion, and the bodies burned in massive furnaces (Eger 2010). This experience no doubt had a profound effect on Salinger, who witnessed first hand what went on at a concentration camp and saw the conditions of the prisoners there immediately following their liberation. Though Salinger does not deal with this experience directly in his stories, an effect on one's perception of humanity is unavoidable.

His language abilities eventually landed him a position as an interrogator working in both French and Italian, questioning prisoners of war and surrendered officers following the end of the main operations in Europe (Eger 2010). The horrors of the war stuck with Salinger, however, and he was hospitalized for a period following his service for post-traumatic stress syndrome. While in treatment, Salinger actually married a German doctor and former Nazi officer. Though details of this marriage and how it came to pass are scare, it was not to be long-lived in any case -- Salinger and the German woman were divorced before two years of marriage were out, and he came back to the United States better than when he had gone into the hospital, but never the same as he was prior to the war (Eger 2010). This had a definite and immediate effect on his writing.

"A Perfect Day for Bananafish"

The story that effectively launched J.D. Salinger's career and that catapulted him much of the way towards his eventual literary stardom -- appears largely innocuous until the final and sudden climactic moment. In this regard as well as in many others, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" embodies Salinger's dryly humorous and deeply poignant way of illuminating human characters and relationships. Through a central isolated character, the world is shown to be both warm and receptive in certain ways, but essentially lacking in what is truly necessary in terms of long-term human communication and understanding. The specific set of circumstances and characters in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" illustrates both the undying sentiment with which Salinger and his protagonists regard human life, but the ultimate disillusionment they suffer as to its possibility of lasting.

The main character of interest in the story is Seymour Glass, talked about almost incessantly by his wife and his mother-in-law, via a long-distance telephone wire whilst the couple is on a vacation at the ocean. After a discussion in which the mother-in-law informs the daughters of apprehensions as to Seymour's mental health since his return from the war and discharge from the Army hospital, Seymour is seen playing in a quite innocent and touching way with a small girl who has befriended him. Even this little girl's jealousy -- she suggests that if another girl sits next to him at the piano, he should just "push her off" -- is endearing and a sign of a sincere and unequivocal inter-human bond. His wife appears to be merely baffled by his desire to play the piano on their vacation.

At the end of the story, Seymour returns from his time at the beach to find his wife asleep after her telephone conversation, whereupon he removes a gun from his luggage and shoots himself in the head. The end is abrupt, and though Salinger hints that all is not well with Seymour when he Is gruff and unreasonable with a woman in the elevator, this violence is entirely unexpected and seemingly uncharacteristic of the gentle and understanding Seymour from the beach. He seems to trust the child he meets implicitly, as she trusts him, but in the adult world there is neither trust nor understanding to be found. The sincerity that Seymour Glass felt gave way to the disillusionment about the imperfections of people, and his isolation won as he took his own life. One of the magnificent results of this ending is the removal of the little girl from the scene; she will never know of her friend's violent end, and this one bond will remain pure and unsullied if nothing else will.

"For Esme -- With Love and Squalor"

Salinger's purposeful and poignant juxtaposition of the innocence of childhood and the deadening disillusionment and isolation that is produced by war continues in many of his other stories, notably "For Esme -- With Love and Squalor." The narrator's isolation can in this instance be felt apparently (though not certainly) even before he has faced real combat, during a training period before he heads to the front. The very experience of war is seen as foreign and alienating regardless of the violence that is experienced only in the limited battlefronts. At the same time, the universality of human sentiment is shown in the immediate attachment of the narrator to the two children present in the tale.

Salinger's view of humanity during the war showed him things to cherish and things to despise, and both are clearly present in "For Esme -- With Love and Squalor." The Esme of the title is a thirteen-year-old girl in a choir that the narrator stops in a church to listen to, and that subsequently approaches him in a coffee shop to strike up an innocent and incredibly frank and honest conversation, replete with many assurances that she is, "quite communicative"… READ MORE

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