Growing up is never easy. The reason for this is that our once preconceived notions of our world is forever broken. Only then, we are forced to see the world the way it is. In JD Salinger’s Nine Stories, all the stories deal with characters being lost in their own world. Being lost, if used as an adjective, someone very confused or insecure or in great difficulties. In many ways, JD Salinger’s characters are either confused, insecure, or experiencing great difficulties in their lives.
In some stories in Nine Stories, JD Salinger deals with the themes of insecurity. In “Esme—With Love and Squalor,” Esme is described as beautiful and unique and her singing voice stands out from the crowd of children she was with (90) and a “truth-lover” (92) …show more content…
Though the two friends catch up, gossip, and reminiscence the “good old days,” (28-32) they feel a sense of lost as to what to do with their lives. They are housewives stuck in a house with nothing else to do. Because of this, they are having a hard time to carve out their identity, despite what society expects them to be. Although in “Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut” uses alcohol to deal with their problems, in “The Laughing Man,” the narrator uses his imagination to avoid tough problems to arise from his baseball team, with a character “The Laughing Man.” (56-62; 64-65;67-68; 72-73) With the coach’s love affair with Mary Hudson (63-66) and its abrupt end (69-70), the narrator stirs away from reality and goes into his fantasy world to cope with the events of the real world.
If being lost can make a person feel insecure or face difficulty, it can also make a person very confused. In “Just Before the War with the Eskimos,” Ginnie Mannox seems to have a fixed idea of what the world should be like. Her narrow-minded view about the world gets her into an argument with Selena Graff because Ginnie expects Selena to contribute to taxi bill since she was paying it for the last “five Saturdays” (39). Little did Ginnie know that Selena is not as fortunate as
In some stories in Nine Stories, JD Salinger deals with the themes of insecurity. In “Esme—With Love and Squalor,” Esme is described as beautiful and unique and her singing voice stands out from the crowd of children she was with (90) and a “truth-lover” (92) …show more content…
Though the two friends catch up, gossip, and reminiscence the “good old days,” (28-32) they feel a sense of lost as to what to do with their lives. They are housewives stuck in a house with nothing else to do. Because of this, they are having a hard time to carve out their identity, despite what society expects them to be. Although in “Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut” uses alcohol to deal with their problems, in “The Laughing Man,” the narrator uses his imagination to avoid tough problems to arise from his baseball team, with a character “The Laughing Man.” (56-62; 64-65;67-68; 72-73) With the coach’s love affair with Mary Hudson (63-66) and its abrupt end (69-70), the narrator stirs away from reality and goes into his fantasy world to cope with the events of the real world.
If being lost can make a person feel insecure or face difficulty, it can also make a person very confused. In “Just Before the War with the Eskimos,” Ginnie Mannox seems to have a fixed idea of what the world should be like. Her narrow-minded view about the world gets her into an argument with Selena Graff because Ginnie expects Selena to contribute to taxi bill since she was paying it for the last “five Saturdays” (39). Little did Ginnie know that Selena is not as fortunate as