Nine short reflections on nine short stories

The upper-class have come up lots in our class discussion. In the short length of a blog post I’m going to try to summarize what we’ve observed about the upper-class through Salinger’s Nine Stories and then try and make sense of why this recurring pattern existed.

Ready, set, go.

“A Perfect Day for Bananafish” show us first Muriel and her mother. Clearly they are in the upper class- Muriel can afford to take vacations, stay in hotels, wear Saks blouses, and sit around the phone and paint her nails. Similarly, her mother (and father) can afford to bring Muriel back home, send her on a cruise, and pay for a psychiatrist. Clearly upper-class. Muriel’s mother is shining a bad light on Seymour to the reader (significant since her mentions are the first that we hear of him) and then in the end of the story he commits suicide. There isn’t much explanation on Seymour other than what we get from Muriel/her mother and Seymour’s interactions with the young girl Sybil. With all the mentions about bananafish, an inference that can be drawn is that Seymour committed suicide because he was so tired of the superficiality of the upper-class and didn’t want to be a part of it any longer.

“Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut” introduces us to Eloise and Mary Jane. Now Mary Jane is a working girl but she went to college with Eloise and all so she’s definitely been exposed to the upper-class lifestyle. Eloise on the other hand is all out. She wears camel hair coats and can afford to sit around all day drinking and smoking cigarettes. She even has a maid whom she calls to for everything related to her daughter, and a daughter whom she yells at a lot, especially when she’s just being a child instead of being all proper. Eloise is extremely cynical but by the end of the story it seems that she cracks. She can’t uphold her poised upper-class persona and breaks down. No matter what you interpret for Eloise’s tears, it’s clear that she can’t handle something about her life. Jab #2 at the upper class.

“Just Before the War with the Eskimos” introduces us to some more upper class characters. Selena and Ginnie play tennis (a rather expensive sport) in the East side (a really nice section of New York). They argue about how they pay/split the cab fare but for the sake of this blogpost, all we need to take away is that 1) they are rich enough to ride a cab and 2) they are rich enough to waste time arguing about who’s going to pay. Now we get to an interesting part- the introduction of Selena’s brother. Clearly he’s from the same upper class background as Selena, but unlike her, he seems to embody lots of characteristics that antithesize the typical pompous rich person. He cuts his finger while digging through the trash and then proceeds to fix it by wrapping it in toilet paper. He also hates on Ginnie’s older sister Joan and her finance and we get the notion that Ginnie might even agree with him. This is a pretty general summary, but Selena’s older brother is almost a breath of fresh air compared to all the upper class people around him.

“The Laughing Man” also seems to give us a break from the trend of stereotypical upper class characters through a story containing lots of children. Forgetting whatever happens plot-wise, these kids are able to go with the Chief and be totally consumed by whatever “adventures” or games they play. Before anything else, the kids are kids and don’t worry about being proper or poised, just about having fun.

“Down at the Dinghy” starts with an interesting perspective. Instead of diving into the perspective of upper class characters, we begin with a conversation between two of the help. They’re talking badly about the people that they work for, especially Mr. Tannenbaum. At least for me, my immediate reaction was to agree with the maids, even though I knew nothing else about the Tannenbaum family. By the end of the story we realize that the maids are actually the ones we should dislike because they are just bashing the family and using racial slurs against them- and from what we see about the family, they seem nice and pretty well mannered. I liked this story because of the plot twist. We start out assuming that we should continue with the notion against the upper class characters in these stories, but by the end we’re reminded that we shouldn’t be prey to stereotypes.

“For Esmé- with Love and Squalor” is told in two parts. In the first part, we get an American author sitting at a coffee shop who has a conversation with a young girl. He wears a cashmere muffler and woollen gloves and he’s about to get his assignment for D-Day. The young girl is European which is significant because even though she’s of the aristocracy, she spends most of her time trying to impress or show off what she thinks she knows about Americans. We saw a lot of contrast with Europeans and Americans in Hemingway but Salinger also touches on the difference. In the second part of the story, we see the author battered and broken from the war, even though he promised the young girl that he wouldn’t let that happen to himself. Similar to Eloise, we see another example of an upper class character “cracking” or reaching their limit of being able to maintain their composure and status.

“Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes” gives us a clear example of an upper class character covering up to try and maintain their image. Arthur, a lawyer, call his coworker Lee at night. He’s in an extremely drunken state and he’s asking Lee if he knows the whereabouts of his wife. Lee says something about how she’s probably out with some friends and just taking a while to get home but Arthur doesn’t really buy that and continues to go on and on about how their relationship isn’t working and that he’s done dealing with it. We’re never told explicitly that Lee is having an affair with Arthur’s wife but we given lots of clues that that may be the case. After an extended conversation, Arthur hangs up but then almost right away he calls back to tell Lee that his wife just got back home and that everything is fine. But nobody enters Arthur’s house and if we believe that Lee is having an affair, then Arthur’s wife is still at Lee’s house. Therefore this is a clear case of Arthur trying to cover up and maintain his status. He just called his coworker late at night and ranted about his marital problems but then he realizes he might have said too much and portrayed himself as not having his life together. Ultimately, Arthur feels an obligation to uphold his upper class image which means he must be polished and put together.

If I’m completely honest, I really didn’t like “De Daumier- Smith’s Blue Period”. The story was SO long (and in my opinion, unnecessarily so) and it was hard for me to keep reading and keep track of what was going on as the story dragged on. I won’t talk about this much but I’ll bring up one point and two question. First, this story mostly takes place in a poor section of Canada (unlike the rich neighborhoods we are used to from earlier stories) and Jean is also in a very poor state following his mother’s death. Secondly, what do you think the roles of New York, Paris, and Montreal play in the story? What do each signify or represent?

“Teddy” is an very complex story with many parts and layers. The McArdle family, particularly the parents, are the epitome of upper class characters. The entire family is on a cruise and it seems that the father cares more about his Gladstone bag and Leica camera than his children. The children just kind of wander off on their own and nobody really seems to care (Teddy, the child, seems to be more responsible about his younger sister than either of his parents). Teddy on the other hand, wears dirty shoes without socks and clothes that not only have holes but are way too large for him. He doesn’t care for things like Gladstone bags (he prefers to use them as a step to jump on in order to see out of the ship) and leica cameras (he gives that to his younger sister to walk around with), but instead likes to ponder spiritual, philosophical, metaphysical, and existential matters. He’s not concerned with superficial matters and even though he dies at the end, we’re not supposed to feel sad about because Teddy is almost looking forward to his death and escaping the superficial life he currently lives in. As mentioned in class, Nine Stories begins with a story that ends with a death and ends with a story that ends with a death. Both people who  died seemed calm about it though, because they wanted to escape all the ridiculousness of upper class society.

Clearly we can see a pattern of Salinger portraying the upper class in a rather negative light. If you look up Salinger’s biography, you can find that he attended a private school but didn’t really fit in with people there. Later he attends college but drops out twice, both within the first year of enrollment. It looks like Salinger himself had personal opinions about the upper class and expressed those feelings through the characters in Nine Stories. I know my paragraph about each story wasn’t a conclusive summary by any means and didn’t hit all the major points, but I just wanted to shine light on Salinger’s feelings projected on the upper class characters in his stories. Let me know if you agree/disagree or see anything that I left out!