More Than Meets the Eye

As we read and discussed "Teddy" in class on Friday, and talked about how unexpected it was that Teddy was so intelligent and outspoken and spiritually knowledgeable, I thought back to the other children that we see in Salinger's stories and realized that there is more to them than meets the eye as well. They all seem more perceptive than the average child and seem to get progressively more observant and knowledgeable the deeper we get into Nine Stories. We discussed a bit in class how there seem to be a lot of children in Salinger's stories and going back through we find that more than half of his stories have main characters or important that are children.

From the very first story, Salinger presents us with an important child character in Sybil. While she may seem like a regular four year old that likes playing in the ocean and searching for fun, made-up creatures such as the bananafish, she is also much more perceptive than one might think. She picks up on small details that the average four-year old wouldn't think to notice, such as how Seymour allowed Sharon Lipschutz to sit with him on the piano bench.

The next child we meet, Ramona in Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, who's seemingly normal child behavior (having an imaginary boyfriend) becomes more than that when we find out that her "beau" died and she replaced him with another friend. This quick replacement seems very similar to her mother's own replacement of Walt (after he dies) with her new husband Lew.

Another good example of this can be found in the story Down at the Dinghy, where we learn that Lionel (the young boy in the story) has run away again. At first this is presented as fairly commonplace especially for this kid, but as we move deeper into the story we learn that he overheard the maids insulting his father when they thought he wasn't listening. This again shows how the children in Salinger are much more perceptive than they seem to be when we first meet them in each story.

As we progress through the collection we meet Esme, in For Esme:-- with Love and Squalor, who is overall a very intelligent and discerning girl, especially being only about thirteen. She immediately picks up on the fact that the narrator is an American soldier who is being trained on the secret base in preparation for the D-Day assault, and without reservation approaches him and asks him about it. As their conversation moves on, she is presented more and more as a very bright, if a little blunt, young girl. This is further confirmed with her offer to write him letters and her request that he write a story about her.

The image of astute/smart children that are more than meets the eye that Salinger presents us with is culminated in the final story of the collection: Teddy. As I said earlier Teddy is extremely intelligent and spiritually aware, despite being ten years old. In fact he is on his way back from the UK where he was being interviewed about his belief that he is the reincarnated spirit of an Indian holy man. As the story progresses he engages in a debate with a man aboard the ship, Bob Nicholson, where he dictates his ideas on how people should be taught and even goes so far as to predict his own death and its repercussions.

Throughout Salinger's Nine Stories we, as readers, are presented with a very interesting view of children. They appear in more than half of the stories as important (and sometimes main) characters and they are always shown to be more intelligent or perceptive than the average child their age or than how they first appear. This dynamic allows for Salinger to move the plot along in a new way, making the readers choose if they are willing to believe the ideas/thoughts of a young child or not. Overall I found this very refreshing, especially since Salinger has shown himself to be very good at writing the dialogue and interactions between adults and children.