For Esmé and APDB Compare and Contrast

For Esmé- with Love and Squalor and A Perfect Day for Bananafish are very similar in many ways. Both stories feature men who have fought in world war two. Both men have been greatly affected by the war and both suffer from PTSD. To deal with their corrupted views of the world, both Seymour and Sergeant X, turn to little kids, more specifically little girls, because they like the innocence that children have. Another similarity is that both of the men have wives who they don’t seem very connected to. This is more obvious in A Perfect Day for Bananafish in which Seymour and his wife Muriel are never shown communicating and Seymour thinks of Muriel as materialistic. Seymour’s disconnection from the world, the world in which Muriel lives in, is what leads Seymour to suicide. Similarly in For Esmé- with Love and Squalor, Sergeant X doesn’t talk about his wife much. When asked whether he loves her deeply or not Sergeant X does not answer. It can be assumed that the relationship between Sergeant X and his wife is not a very good one. Perhaps not having very good relationships with their wives is another reason why these two men befriend innocent little girls. A major difference in these two stories is the fact that Seymour ends up killing himself. I find this strange considering we are given more details regarding Sergeants X’s PTSD. Sergeant X had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized. Sergeant X’s fingers shake and his brain teeters however in the end it is Seymour, who does not show any similar or very obvious signs of PTSD, who takes his own life.

APDFB and Esmé

APDFB and Esme have many similar symbols. Both stories mention feet, which seems to be a symbol for innocence and corruption in both stories. X describes Esmé's feet as lovely, but he tells Clay to get his "stinkin feet" off the bed. Clay is corrupted because of the war, so his "stinkin feet" could be a symbol of his corruption, while Esmé's feet may represent innocence. In APDFB, Seymour was insecure about people looking at his feet because he didn't want anyone to see that he has been corrupted from the war. Seymour also kisses Sybil's feet because they show her innocence.

A huge part of both stories is the war and PTSD. Seymour and X are ashamed of their experience in war because war has corrupted them. Seymour describes the soldiers as banana fish in an unpleasant way, while X is disgusted by getting an Eisenhower jacket. X does not want to flaunt his experience in the war, unlike Clay who wears all his service ribbons and stars. Both Seymour and X show signs of PTSD; however, Seymour commits suicide in the end, while X started "becoming a man with all his fac- with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact" (173) because of Esmé's package.

Both stories have an age gap in friendship/relationships. Sybil and Seymour have a big age gap like X and Esmé/Charles. The differnce is that Seymour acts younger for his age, but Esmé acts older than thirteen. Seymour wants to be younger and innocent like Sybil, but a reason that Esmé acts older may be so she could impress X.

Together the colors yellow and blue represent the mixture of corruption (yellow) and innocence (blue). Both Sybil and Esmé have blonde hair, showing how they have been corrupted. Since Esmé's parents died, she has been forced to take leadership in raising her younger brother. Death is a common theme through out the Nine Stories, and is part of growing up and corruption. Furthermore, Sybil eats olives from her mothers martinis. Therefore their is small amounts of alcohol on the olives she eats, symbolizing how corruption begins lurking around kids in small doses when they are younger. Overall, Sybil and Esmé have been corrupted to different extents, but also have some innocence left to them (Sybil is still a naive, curious child and despite Esmé's situation she does show some childish behavior). 
While Esmé and Sybil are similar in their sense of innocence and corruption, Seymour and X differ. Even though both Seymour and X have clearly been affecting from serving in the war, their coping methods and end result are much different. On one hand, Seymour finds comfort in friendship with younger kids because of the innocence. Unfortunately, Seymors yearn for innocence eventually tips him over the edge. When looking at his own feet verses Sybils feet, he is able to reflect on himself. Sybils feet are pure, while his are corrupt from war. After his long mental battle over PTSD, Seymour kills himself. X on the other hand, deals with his PTSD quite differently. X shows signs of hope during a dark time. He thinks he will at some point beable to return to the man he was before the war. WIthout Esmé, X might not have been able to reach this conclusion. Seymour did not have this, for his wife was absent. 

A Perfect Day for Banana Fish vs. For Esmé

     The short stories A Perfect Day for Banana Fish and For Esmé-with Love and Squalor have many similarities as well as obvious differences. The main similarity between the short stories is the main character's problems with innocence. Seymour has an obvious problem with being stuck in between a world full of corruption and innocence. While at war, Seymour was surrounded by war, violence, and materialistic people. He often represented corrupt or "phony" things with the color yellow. When Seymour came home, and was surrounded with complete innocence, he had trouble being part of this other world. Seymour's relationship with Sybil and Sharon, as well as his obsession with bare(pure) feet represents him during his innocent stage of his life. It is possible that going to war forced Seymour to leave his innocent life behind and enter this realistic world of corruption. Similarly Esmé has difficulties with innocence. The death of her parents caused Esmé to take responsibility for herself and her brother, which caused her to grow up faster. In many ways, Esmé pushed herself into the world of corruption when she stated that she was "extremely interested in squalor" (Salinger 151) It is obvious here that she wants to grow up, and grow out of her innocence. At the same time, we see hints of Esmé's innocence, when she mentions her father. Since Esmé misses her father greatly, she relates every part of her conversation with X to her father, and his amazing qualities, so you can see her childish side. 

       X believes that during his time at war, all of his actions were justified. I believe that he has this quality of denial to cope with the horrors of war. When X was talking to Clay, he tried to convince Clay, as well as himself that he didn't do anything wrong at war. He tried to persuade them both by saying "You weren't insane. You were simply doing your duty."(Salinger 167) It was almost as if he was trying to put the blame of killing people on this idea of "its his job" Even with denial, X developed PTSD because he couldn't cope with the horrors of war. On the other hand, Seymour didn't seem to have a coping mechanism. He seemed very depressed, and I didn't get a sense that he was trying to make light out of his situation. Seymour's PTSD had taken over him to a point where he couldn't trick his body into recovering like X was attempting to do. 

Connections "For Esmé" and "APDFB"

“For Esmé” and “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” share many common themes and symbols and the characters respond in similar ways to their situations.

The effect of war is an important part in both of these stories. In “For Esmé…” the setting take places in Europe very shortly after the war ended whereas the setting for “APDFB” takes place in the United States and has a longer time period after the end of WWII. The two main characters, Sergeant X and Seymour Glass experience significant repercussions from taking par in the war. Effects such as shaking of the hands or decrease in mental stability are evident in the two stories. In the end of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” Seymour eventually commits suicide whereas Sergeant X believes he can once again become a man with his “faculties intact.”

Both X and Seymour have a relationship with a significantly younger girl. While at the beach, Seymour plays with a girl named Sybil who is about the age of four. Sergeant X had a brief meeting at a tearoom with a young lady about the age of thirteen, named Esmé. Both X and Seymour seemed to be affected greatly by the interaction with these young ladies. Seymour focuses on the innocence that Sybil still possesses, whereas Seymour noticed that Esmé did not enjoy being a child and was filled more corruption than a thirteen-year-old girl should be. Sybil and Seymour seemed to keep in touch with each other by meeting at the beach everyday and also, Esmé wrote a letter to Sergeant X while he was away at war. 

For Esmé... and A Perfect Day for Bananafish

“A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “For Esmé-with Love and Squalor” there are many similar themes and ideas that occur in both stories. For example, the colors yellow and blue. Yellow symbolizes corruption and blue symbolizes innocence. In both books there is mention to blonde (yellow) hair that is wet from water (blue). This happens to Sybil and Esmé and they both represent how they are in the middle of corruption and innocence. While they are still partially innocent, they know and have experienced things that have made them corrupt. Both of Esmé's parents are dead, so she had to grow up faster and take care of her brother. Sybil, though still a child is eating olives out of martinis. Even though she does not understand that they are tainted, this still makes her slightly corrupted. Another similarity in these books is that in both of them the main characters suffer from serving in the war. Both Seymour and X seem to have mental issues that come from the war. Seymour hangs out with little kids and talks about things that don’t make sense and in the end kills himself. X, towards the end of the story uncontrollably shakes and is very antisocial. He tells Clay to leave his room and will not go listen to the radio with Clay and a few other people.  Both have mental problems or maybe PTSD. Those are just two of the many themes/ideas that both stories share.

"For Esmé" vs. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"

"For Esmé" and "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", both share a wide variety of reoccurring themes and symbols. However in each, protagonists deal with conflict in different ways.

Both "For Esmé" and "APDFB" revolve around war. In "APDFB", Seymour struggles with the repercussions of his service. He struggles with the notion that he lost his innocence. He expresses this through the Bananafish metaphor. He seems himself, as a Bananfish, or a soldier, who tries to kill as many people as they can, but then can ever escape the deeds they did. Seymour struggles with PTSD, and succumbs to his illness eventually killing himself. In "For Esmé", Soldier X struggles after his nervous breakdown in Bavaria. After, experiencing life as a solider in WWll, Soldier X becomes disgusted with the killing of innocent lives. He makes a reference to this, referring to when Clay shot the innocent cat, after the shell explosion. Soldier X is disgusted at Clay's ability to suppress such brutal events. The cat is a manifestation to all the lives Soldier X was responsible for harming.

In both stories, the main characters suffer from the effects of the war. In both stories, the protagonists are either negatively viewed by or regarded negatively by family. In "APDFB", Sybil's parents see Seymour as a disgrace. They worry about his mental stability and fear he will damage the reputation of Sybil and her entire family. Her parent's encourage her to abandon Seymour on a cruise and disregard their marriage. In "For Esmé", Soldier X's brother is seen as unsympathetic to the struggles of the war. When, his brother rite to him, he makes no mention of the atrocities he had to face. He doesn't even express gratitude for his service. He makes light of the war requesting he bring swastikas and jackets for his children. Soldier X, becomes frustrated believing he's the only one who was affected.

However, In both stories, characters deal with their mental illness differently. In "APDFB", Seymour succumbs to his PTSD, and kills himself. In "For Esmé", although Soldier X's mental state is grim he has hope. He believes he can be a man whose "facilities are in tact". His optimism for the future, shows sharp contrast with Seymour. Seymour couldn't reconcile his past struggles with the society in which he lived in. Both stories, are similar but have pivotal differences.

Connections

 “A Perfect day for Bananfish” and “For Esmé- with love and squalor” both share common themes and ideas. One similarity is that both younger girls, Esme and Sybil are having some sort of relationship with an older man; all do to the fact of the loss of innocence. After the war, Seymour had lost his innocence and hangs around with Sybil, acting in a very immature manor towards Sybil sexually. In contrast in For Esme, X, had also lost his innocence because of war, but so had Esme, after her parents had died and she had to take on much more responsibilities. They too have a strange relationship. X first saw Esme in Choir and her voice stuck out to him rather than all the others and later that day they sit and talk to each other in the tea place. It is very odd because Esme is a 13 year old girl is sitting with a middle aged married man and telling X, who is a stranger to her all about her life and her family. They keep this relationship going by writing letters between each other. Another similarity on both these stories is war and the effects that war has on people. Both Seymour and X come out of the war with sufferings (mentally and physically), however both characters react differently. In Banana fish, Seymour has PTSD and kills himself. Seymour doesn’t seem to have anybody around him to truly help him. However X does. In For Esme, X comes back from war and has severe issues, with his tic, his hands shaking rapidly and other mental issues, but apposed to how Seymour reacted, X’s spirit is lifted from Esme’s letter. After he received her letter it says that, “he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac- with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact. Meaning he can once again become the man he was before the war. Esme is what allowed X to get back to being himself, and unfortunately Seymour had nothing like that and his life was ended very quickly.