For Esme

This is a story of a militant during the second world war time. The story is written by  J. D. Salinger. His full name is Jerome David Salinger. He was an American author who started his career with writing short stories for magazines in Manhattan, New York, USA.The story starts in 1945 when he receives an invitation for a wedding from Esme and he goes back into the past and writes down this story.This particular story is of a young girl Esme that this militant person meets at the church in which children's choir practice was going on. The militant just happened to be there. The militant closely observes Esme during the choir and then leaves the church as the choir ends. He goes to the near by cafe and spends sometime there alone. After a while Esme, her younger brother and the care taker enters the same cafe. The girl, Esme approaches the militant and he feels warm and connected to talk to her. This young girl, Esme tries to be witty for age during the conversation with the militant. The militant observes her patiently. Esme's younger brother also makes a move to have a word with the militant in a very innocent manner. Esme kept telling him about her family. After an interesting conversation Esme, her younger brother and the care taker had to leave the cafe. However during the conversation the militant promised Esme to write a squalor stories on her humble request and Esme promised to write him a letter. After she leaves the story takes turn into the third person writing another story. This story was written by the militant for Esme as promised. He narrates his life at the camp in third person to keep the anonymity. He also mentions that he had received her letter and her father's watch from Esme.

While reading the story I kept the context of the characters very well in mind that its a war time and the story is written from the militant's point of view. The story is sequenced in a little confusing manner for me as it went into flashback at different times. This confusion was cleared off by the group members during our discussion.

Theme of the story according to me is about a random conversation that a militant had with a very young girl at a cafe. They have a small talk as strangers and feels the connect and may be some warmth too. As mentioned above the setting and context of the story is war time. There are not many characters in the story. Majorly the story involves Esme, her brother- Charles,care taker,Army man, his wife, mother-in-law, his friend at the camp and his girl friend. However there was a mention of a dog too. But I'm ambiguous about his his real existence in the story. I doubt it could be entirely his imagination of the dog being there. The friend's (Clay's) girlfriend, Lorreta, was a psychology student.

I think the most striking take away for me from the literary discussion of this story with my peers was that each one of us had a variation in our interpretation of it. Each of us identified different key points which we felt were highlights of the story and then through the sharing process, making sense of the story in terms of the theme, the characters, the dialogues etc. became a richer experience.

During the discussion there were couple of questions raised by all the members and clarifications were given to all the questions. There were not much arguments or disagreements regarding the interpretations of the story other than if the the story has a touch of love story effect or is it just a simple fiction story. Well for me there is a little bit of affection attached with both the parties in the story. They share some good connection. Otherwise why would Esme give her dead father's wrist watch to the man whom she met at a cafe when she was 13. I definitely would agree that there is no romance involved in the bond that they are sharing. And why is he affected by her wedding? in reference with the following, All the same, though, wherever I happen to be I don't think I'm the  type that doesn't even lift a finger to prevent a wedding from flatting. Accordingly, I've gone ahead and jotted down a few revealing notes on the bride as I knew her almost six years ago. If my notes should cause the groom, whom  I haven't  met, an uneasy moment or two, so much the better. Nobody's aiming to please, here.  More,really, to edify, to instruct.

All of us agreed that the story is sort of semi autobiography.  As a part of our literacy circle discussions we came across some of the questions and some were answered some are still in the air and much to ponder upon. One of the questions was did they continue writing letters? Who knows? I personally don't think that they wrote letters to each other quite often. If they had then the author would have mentioned in somewhere in the story. Next question was why did the author started narrating story in 3rd person in disguised manner? Well from story's point of view some of the group members said may be the author is not able to trust his own voice hence taking the third person's stance he can reason out his own character in that way. The next question that we came across was that was the author depressed? or too sarcastic? Did the author feel disconnected from the world? Well for according to my understanding yes I think the author felt little disconnected from the world because he was living at the war site in war time and army men become quiet, aloof, lonely and silent persons. Yes the story had a sarcastic tone at times but I also felt that the story ended on a happy note. Was it bizarre for Esme to give her father's watch to this man? I think it was. If I were at Esme's place I don't think I would give away my father's wrist watch to a stranger that I'd met couple of years ago in a cafe. Lastly I think all of us are still not very clear about the change in 3rd person writing mode and is there love attached from either of sides?