For Esme – With love and squalor by J.D.Salinger

( Hemant Sharma)

The story is about an American soldier, also an aspiring writer, undergoing training in Devon England before being shipped to the frontlines of World War 2. On the day of his departure he meets a young girl of thirteen, Esme and her brother Charles, at a café over tea. He engages in a dialogue with Esme which shows the directness and openness of children which is appealing in its freshness.  During the conversation between Esme and the soldier, the reader gets to know that Esme’s father died in the war and that she is living with her Aunt.  Esme is intelligent enough to figure out that he’s a soldier and likely to be heading to the battlefront. During the course of the conversation the soldier notices an oversized watch on her wrist and finds out that it belonged to her father. Before parting Esme requests the soldier to write a story for her, preferably on squalor and hopes he comes back from the battlefront with all his faculties intact.

Salinger than takes the reader to a scene which is post the end of the war though still in Bavaria. We read about a character X, a soldier, who appears to be recovering from an injury, which appears to be more mental than physical. A lot of this comes through during the course of a dialogue between X and his partner. Soldier X clearly is suffering since his responses appear to be out of context and disoriented as well as hallucinatory, reflecting an injury to some mental faculty. After his partner leaves him alone in the room, X notices a parcel, which seems to have been accidentally pushed aside and gone UN noticed. He opens it and finds a letter from Esme along with a watch. She expresses her concern about his health and hopes that he has not been adversely impacted in the war. She also mentions as a post script that she is enclosing her father’s watch since she had noticed that he was not wearing a watch when they had met.  He holds onto the letter and watches for a long time and then ecstatically feels uplifted and sleepy. The story ends with his statement “You take a really sleepy man, Esme, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his faculties intact.

 Like in a lot of his stories, Salinger has an adolescent Esme, as one of the main characters of the story.  Salinger uses his adolescent characters to reflect on some deeper meanings of life. We see the same thought process in this story where the dialogue with Esme provokes thought, which would make even adults pause to think and reflect.  It’s interesting to see that even though Salinger’s character of Esme is an adolescent, however the conversation could have been happening between two adults.  The beauty of it is that he makes it appear absolutely natural, and the reader doesn’t feel that the adolescent is being too big for her boots ,  even though coming from an adolescent.

That’s the beauty of Salinger’s writing style . The style of his narration helps build up a vivid imagery of the setting. In this story one can easily visualise the two protagonists sitting in a tea room and having the conversation. We see something similar  in the ‘squalid ‘part of the story. We can visualise the setting of an army barrack room with one naked bulb in the room. Again , there is no direct mention about X’s mental state of health for the reader to arrive at this conclusion. Salinger uses vivid analogy to drive home the message, “He put his arms on the table and rested his head on them. He ached from head to foot, all zones of pain seemingly interdependent. He was rather like a Christmas tree whose lights, wired in series, must all go out if even one bulb is defective”.  Salinger than moves on to use dialogue which X has with his partner to give a sense to the reader about the protagonist’s mental health. Salinger’s focus on dialogue and third person narrative is prevalent in many of his works. Through these two styles of writing, the reader understands the relationships the characters have with each other, and how these characters interact with other people.

Salinger’s writing style provides the reader with an impartial point of view of the story. He creates a non judgemental  space for the characters. There is no judgement involved and leaves the reader  free to develop his own opinion about the characters in the story. Right through the story there’s hardly an instance where Salinger makes statements or observations which influence our judgement of the characters. Even where Esme makes ‘adult like ‘statements, the narrative is quick to clarify. Like when Esme is talking about her father and his take on humour, the narrative is quick to follow through with “This was a statement of faith, not a contradiction”. Another example can be seen from the statement , “It wasn’t the observation of a smart aleck but that of a truth-lover or a statistics-lover”.  This helps the reader form his own interpretation.

The title of the story  “For Esme – with Love and squalor “ itself grabs attention , with two contradictory words like Love and Squalor combined together,  arousing curiosity  in the readers mind with the use of such contrasting terms. Given the title, even half way through the story one waits for the ‘love story ‘to unfold.    On a first read , the build-up  of the story in no way gives one an inclination of what’s coming next or how different parts of the story are getting connected. In fact the end of the story leaves the reader with a sense of something deep and takes  some  reflection before the pieces start falling together , to be able to make the connections. It’s not only just the plot of the story but also the narrative style. Even though a short story, however the characters and the context get well developed for the reader.

We also see Salinger’s use of symbolism when we read about the broken watch which the sergeant receives .This in itself is full of symbolism, possibly of the squalid part of war. It also indicates the state of the sergeant’s health.  In fact he doesn’t even want to check if it’s working by winding the watch, since his mind doesn’t want to contend with that eventuality. It’s almost like he sees it as a connection to his own wellbeing and he’s scared that if the watch is damaged, he himself won’t be able to heal. For the soldier it is a symbol of hope, of faith, and of the goodness that humans are, against all odds, capable.

Even though the story is set in an era long gone by (almost a hundred years back) however it does not feel dated at all since these scenes could have happened, with variations, in any of the wars. More pertinently, this could be because Salinger focuses on timeless human emotions of love and hope. This book is worth more than one read, not just for the story, but to enjoy Salinger’s style of writing. “For Esme – With Love and Squalor “is   a moving story without too much of emotional wrenching but huge amount of impact.

In fact in our discussions within our literary circle, there was a fair amount of variation amongst each other on the interpretation of what the author is trying to convey and the essence of the story. The couple of major points of discussions were, firstly the love angle in the story. And if there was one, what type of ‘love ‘was the author trying to reflect in the story.  For there is no hint of a relationship developing between the sergeant and Esme, right through the story, except for the title of the story.

On subsequent reflection and re reading of the story, in my personal opinion, I could possibly relate it as a love story. This can be gleaned from Dostoevsky’s quote which the sergeant uses in the story, "Fathers and teachers, I ponder `What is hell?' I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love." Here however love appears to be  a concept, in isolation of a relationship. And hence more pure. And as a token of this love, the story itself is a gift of love, to Esme from the sergeant ( or is it Salinger himself).  Akin to the feelings evoked by a song called “Your Song “by Elton John, where the lyrics evoke a similar sentiment,

“I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do
my gift is my song, and this one's for you.”

The second discussion point within the group was on ‘squalor’i.e which part of the story is squalid and what is the significance of the use of this word in the title. One obvious option was Esme’s request to write him a story on squalor, but the group did come to a consensus that the war itself was a squalid affair and hence reflecting of the squalor in the title of the story.  Actually the use of the word squalor contrasts so starkly with Love that it almost seems like the lotus in the muck.  

The idea of literary circles was extremely useful in understanding the story. It brought together different perspectives and facilitated deeper understanding on aspects which one had missed out in the initial reading. It made me explore other facets of the story and look at different angles which the author may be trying to bring out in the story as well as through the story. It also made me more reflective since, had the discussion not happened, one would have missed out on the different angles.  After all , the objective of conversation is to build on each others ideas rather than debate to win a point. Life has too many shades to be bogged down with just one.

As a reader, this exercise helped me realise that it’s important to read between the lines rather than jump to conclusions based on one reading. I have a tendency to read fast, which may make my understanding superficial, hence missing out on the subtlety of the words and sentences. This helped also to draw connections between different parts of the story as well as the relationships in the story. “There’s more to it than meets the eye “, helps describe one of the key learnings from this exercise.  Even Charles, who is hardly the main character of the story, has a purpose.

From the perspective of  an educator it helped me realise that literary discussions can be a great source of meaning making.  Especially given the fact that literature gives one the latitude to make meaning which may not necessarily be what the author intended. It also helps in making order out of randomness, a key attribute of literature, besides providing a better understanding of the human situation and nature. The discussion also helped me better understand human motives , of the characters , and what motivates them , which I would have missed out , had one read and reflected on one’s own , without the benefit of others perspective.