At first, it appears that Salinger is making fun of high-society and Jean De Daumier in De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period. This is displayed when Jean writes to Monsieur Yoshoto and creates a fake persona. He describes a life of luxury and claims his parents were friends with Picasso. This false profile reflects Salinger’s view of the upper class and how, as Holden Caufield says it, “Phony” they are. Jean also holds himself to very high esteem, feeling his talent is being wasted at the Yoshotos’ art school. He thinks, “Here I am-a man who had won three first-prizes, a very close friend of Picasso (which I actually was beginning to think I was)-Being used as a translator. The punishment didn’t begin to fit the crime.” Jean’s rather pompous attitude is seen in how Salinger chose to type the letters of the story. There is a great deal of emphasis on the words “inscrutable” and “unendurable,” mocking the overdramatic behavior of aristocrats. However, it appears Salinger actually sympathizes with Jean and uses him as a way to show his mockery of high society, rather than the character himself.
Jean, when he first moves back to New York, craves isolation like Salinger. When there appears to be a large crowd in front of his hotel, he states, “I prayed for the city to be cleared of direct action, for the gift of being alone- a-l-o-n-e.” Not only is this a reference to Salinger’s life as a recluse, but to Esme’s tendency to spell out words. For Esme-With Love and Squalor is one of the three stories written in the first person. Furthermore, Jean writes a letter describing his false identity to have “Reached the cold, white, isolating summits of my profession.” Jean also paints seventeen self-portraits in the span of a month, mirroring how Salinger’s stories tend to reflect parts of himself.
Adam-
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that Salinger pokes fun of Jean, but through doing this, reveals his distaste for a certain group of people or a character type, not Jean specifically.
One of my favorite lines in the story and one applicable to this argument is: "(I picked Picasso, I
might mention, because he seemed to me the French painter who was best-known in
America. I roundly considered Canada part of America)". This quote highlights the ignorance of Jean, but more specifically American society as a whole. Jean's usage of the word roundly (adverb, thoroughly, completely), shows his unawareness of geography as well as tendency towards stereotyping. Salinger here, reflects on the values of American society at the time. He provides support for the stereotype, of Americans as conceited, ignorant, and obsessed. people. By using Jean, as a medium, Salinger manages to express his distaste towards American society. By using Jean as a means to a point, Salinger manages to express sympathy to wards Jean's apparent "stupidity". After Jean says this, Saligner objectively describes Jean's stories about Picasso to Mousier Yoshoto. His tone is somewhat aloof and contains no elements of judgement. Salinger appears to sympathize with Jean, and understands the façade he has put up. Through the prior revealing of the death of Jean's mother, Jean's lie as portrayed as his "armor", not an aplomb American trying to impress his boss. Salinger hints at Perhaps, Salinger can relate to Jean's desire to distance himself from society, like he did himself.
Salinger seems to be identifying with the character Jean while also mocking him at the same time. There are many parallels between the two. In a way Salinger is using Jean to make fun of himself much like Mark Twain made fun of himself in the first paragraph of Huck Finn. There is ample evidence supporting this theory. First, Salinger makes Jean an extremely narcissistic character having him paint 17 self-portraits. Salinger also writes about his own life a lot and what is going on in it, which is similar to Jean painting pictures of himself. Salinger makes Jean a very lonely and isolated character; he doesn’t have any friends and he stays in the Art studio all day. Salinger criticizes Jean for doing this by making him look pathetic and having him obsess over the nun, writing long letters to her when he doesn’t know her at all. Salinger was also like Jean in many ways; he rarely left his writing studio (which was his home), he never had many friends, and he was very lonesome. Also when Jean is walking by the orthopedics store (symbol for youth and innocence?) he sees a thirty-year-old girl in a blue and green (blue and yellow combined) dress. This could be Salinger being critical of Jean - perhaps Jean is mostly adult and only has a little child in him, or it could be that Salinger is hoping that even though he knows he is mostly adult he could have some innocence left in him.
ReplyDeleteBy Jack Antico
Teddy has a very unique philosophy. Teddy believes in the Eastern religious philosophy and the Vedantic theory of incarnation meaning that he thinks that he has lived thousands of lives in previous incarnations. In his previous life, he says, he was a spiritual man in India and very close to enlightenment. Unfortunately, he met a lady and stopped meditating, which is why he was reincarnated in an American body (Woman are bad?). It's hard to live a spiritual life in America, Teddy tells us (anti-American?). Teddy tells us that he can see that everything is God and he first started doing this when he was six. He says in order to do this you have to throw up logic and knowledge because they restrict you from seeing that everything is God. Teddy also thinks he has no emotions; he doesn’t feel happiness or sadness and he talks about how his parents don’t really love him. Teddy’s father thinks this makes Teddy inhumane and in a way it does. Teddy also believes in a theory that if you do not see something than it doesn’t exist. This is a very absurd idea, but it does play into his ideology. Also when Bob asks how Teddy would change the educational system he says he would teach every child to meditate and to find out who they are not who people tell them to be. This reveals that he believes that adults particularly in America are restricting and curb a child’s creativity. Teddy is also very unmaterialistic and doesn’t care about his appearance at all because he doesn’t think it matters and it doesn’t matter to him what other people think of him.
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