“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.
Comparison/ Contrast of For Esme with Love and Squalor and APDFB:
ReplyDeleteThere are a few comparisons between the two novels. One major similarity in themes of the two novels is the theme of war. Both the main character’s, sergeant X and Seymour Glass experienced war, and because of the war, they both assumedly have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Seymour and X also look for innocence, because of the lack of innocence in their life, and eventually find it in Sybil and Esme, but these two end up losing their innocence. Sybil is a kid, possibly 5 years old, who is told a story about bananafish, which metaphorically explains how once you are corrupted; you cannot go back to innocence. Esme is a young girl who was forced to become more mature at a young age because of the death of her father and mother. She was an orphan who also has to take care of her little brother. Salinger displays the loss of innocence through dampening blond hair, which both these two central characters have in the short stories.
Although these two novels are similar, they are also different. Seymour Glass, in the end of his novel, kills himself because he realizes he cannot be un-corrupted. X on the other hand, at the end of the novel, realizes there is hope for him to return to a state of sanity, not necessarily innocence, but sanity. X sees this through the letters sent by Esme. X also doesn’t seem to realize the corruption of Esme when they first meet. Seymour wasn’t able to recreate that hope, even though he tried with Sybil. Seymour even tried to convince himself that Sybil’s swimsuit was blue (innocent) and not yellow(corrupt). They both handle their PTSD in different ways.