Connections Between “The Nine Stories”

1.     The idea of adults trapped in between their innocent youth and adulthood (pretty much in anything Salinger writes). Seymour struggled with the fact that he was in an adult body in an adult world with a child’s heart. Although this one’s a farther stretch, Eloise was stuck living in the past and she was an adult who once again longed for, not exactly her childhood, but her younger years when she wasn’t so jaded and she had been happily in love. And finally, Franklin struck me as a childish character. He’s described as being “the funniest looking boy, or man – it was hard to tell” (63) so he’s physically childish and he speaks very much like a child and throughout the entire passage he’s in Salinger’s writing is very informal and childish, but when it switches to Eric his writing suddenly becomes very mature. He also acts very childish, incredibly obedient to Ginnie, freaking out over a cut like it’s the end of the world, and not going to college.

3.     Depending on how you look at it, redemption. I could be way off here but in this book she sort of redeems herself in the end, not making Selena play her the money as she developed an attachment to the childish boy (like Seymour attached to Sybil??) and in the second story, Eloise was looking for redemption in the end when she asked whether how she used to be a nice girl, and in some ways Seymour was looking for redemption with that gun shot, depending on how you look at it, he was returning to innocence or he was getting rid of his own corruption.

4.     Cigarettes and Camel Fur Coats in Uncle Wiggly and Eskimo’s, World War II in all of them, and the uncrossing/crossing of the legs in Bananafish and Eskimo’s… I have no idea the significance of either of these though
Of course, all of this could be awkwardly and dreadfully wrong.