The Genesis of Theme in Salinger: a Study of the Early Stories

The genesis of theme in Salinger: a study of the early stories Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Taiz, Nard Nicholas, 1939- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 05:33:52 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/317934 THE GENESIS OF THEME IN SALINGER: A STUDY OF THE EARLY STORIES by Nard Nicholas Taiz A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 6 6 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfill ment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission? provided that accurate acknowl edgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the inter ests of scholarship« In all other instances9 however, permission must be obtained from the author. APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: CECIL ROBINSON Associate Professor of English ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my mother and father, who got me graduate school; my wife and children, who got me through and my mentor, Dr. Cecil Robinson, who made it all worth while O I also wish to thank Alan Shucard, a friend and colleague whose critical insights were indispensable. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT » « * o @ o o » » n o @ @ @ * » a 0 0 0 *v" I. THE OUTSIDER, LOOKING IN . 1 II. MARRIAGE A LA MODE 29 III, THE GLADWALLER-CAULFIELD STORIES ....... 71 IV, THE DESTROYED ARTIST: SEYMOUR IN EMBRYO , , , 112 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ....... ....... 146 iv / ABSTRACT Jo D. Salinger1s early and generally unknown stories are of varying degrees of literary merit. Nevertheless, during his apprenticeship he had already begun to develop themes which were to figure largely in his later and more celebrated works. His major theme is always emotional estrangement. In the earliest stories, however, the characters find themselves on the outside, looking in at a world from which they are excluded by some physical grotesquery o Although these characters often possess a kind of inner sensitivity, Salinger had not yet made this their sole badge of alienation. In those stories which deal with marriage, Salinger's characters, either through some personal magnanimity or through the compassion of others, are able to find happiness and understanding. In the G1adwaller-Caulfield stories, Salinger's theme becomes more clearly defined. His characters are no longer alien ated by some obvious physical difference but rather by their own hypersensitivity, their own overawareness of the world's lovelessness, insensitivity and indifference. In the last two stories, Salinger portrays his protagonist as an artist beset by the slick inventiveness of the waste- landers, the inhabitants of the "phony" world who succeed vi in destroying the hypersensitive, often too submissive, and ultimately lonely artist. I. THE OUTSIDER, LOOKING IN J. D . Salinger, as a relatively unprolific writer, has prompted more critical interest than perhaps any other post-war novelist. Although most of this interest has been directed at his first and only full-length novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and although some critics insist that the Salinger vogue is "out," the appearance of a new Salinger story is still something of a literary sensation. The numerous articles also reveal an interesting diversity of critical modes: sociological, psychological, linguistic, structural, and religious - Most critics, nevertheless, see Salinger as either a sociological or religious writer. Those who write from a sociological viewpoint see Salinger's theme as individu alism versus conformity or man versus society, often im plying that Salinger embraces a kind of Rousseauistic faith in a natural goodness that social institutions have cor rupted. At the other end of the critical spectrum are those critics who see Salinger as essentially a religious writer. These critics are, I think, closer to the truth, for Salinger's species of crisis is too personal, too much an inner concern, to be completely Rousseauistic or, for that matter, strictly sociological. Since Salinger leads the life of a recluse and since 9 as he himself has said, it is not important M * to know a writer’s birthplace, his children’s names, his working schedule, the date of his arrest for smuggling guns (the gallant rogue!) during the Irish Rebellion,"^ only those biographical facts which seemed inextricably a part of this study have been included» Salinger has petulantly refused re-publication rights to his early stories and often has gone so far as to attempt to discourage critical examination of them. Thus, because most of these early stories have not been reprinted, critics have failed to give them the attention they deserve * There are only two other studies which deal in any detail with the early stories. Of these, Warren French1s J . D . Salinger is the most extensive and indeed the most useful. On the other hand, Gwynn and Blotner’s The Fiction of J. D. Salinger, the first comprehensive study of Salinger’s fiction, is criticism in the limited sense of the word, often devoting to the early stories no more than a breezy quip. Neverthe less, though of varying degrees of literary merit, these early stories are significant and interesting because they reveal--despite Salinger’s disclaimers--the development of central themes and techniques which were to be later dealt with in greater depth® 1 ® [Autobiographical Note] , in Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait, ed« Henry Anatole Grunwald (New York: Pocket Book, Inc®, 1963)? p* 23« In each of the stories in this chapter, the basic predicament which all of Salinger1s characters must face is outlinede They are all alienated from the society in which they live; they are misfits« Their homeliness, doltish ness, promiscuousness, or age--often only the outer badges of their exclusion from society--clothe something of an inner sensitivity which is more the real reason for their exclusion<> And they are usually further estranged because they are unable or unwilling to articulate their need for love and understanding. Salinger's first published story, "The Young Folks," was the product of a short-story class at Columbiae Ernest Havemann reports that the teacher, the noted editor of Story magazine Whit Burnett, was not at first impressed with Salinger: "1 He was a silent fellow. Almost never a question. Never a comment » I thought he was nothing. 1" Nevertheless, at the end of the semester, Salinger turned in his first manuscript, "The Young Folks," which was polished enough for Burnett to publish in Story magazine 2 without changes* This story was the first of five known stories to be published in the "little" magazines (magazines offering an outlet for stories not fitting the mode of the slicks), and French is correct in assuming that these 2 * Ernest Havemann, "The Search for the Mysterious J * D« Salinger: The Recluse in the Rye," Life, LI (November 3 , 1961), 138. stories "are important as examples of what he [Salinger] undoubtedly regarded as the most serious of his early work »"3 This concentrated and witty story is a fair beginning for the author of The Catcher in the Rye» The overly efficient hostess at a college students’ drinking party-observing that Edna Phillips has been unsuccessfully vying for male attention for three hours— introduces her to William Jameson, Jr., who also has been sitting alone, "biting his fingernails and staring at a small blonde girl 4 sitting on the floor with three young men from Rutgers." Despite Edna’s repeated attempts at small talk, Jameson remains disinterestedly reticent, insisting that he must go home to write a theme. Under the pretense of getting a drink, Edna maneuvers him onto the terrace where, amidst the hushed voices of petting "young folks," Jameson still remains densely uncommunicative. In an attempt to pique his jealousy, she describes her relationship with an artist-graduate of Princeton in whom she was greatly interested until he "asked too much" of her® Again, how ever, Jameson fails to respond, interested only in her catty innuendoes about the small blonde. Left on the 3® Warren French, J . D ® Salinger (New Haven, Connecticut: College and University Press, 1963)) P e ^7° 4. "The Young Folks," Story, XVI (March-April 1940), 26. 5 terrace, Edna learns from the matchmaking hostess that Jameson has not gone home but rather has ensconced himself on the floor near the blonde» After insinuating that Jameson has made advances toward her, she retires to the house, remaining upstairs for nearly twenty minutes. She then returns with a replenished supply of cigarettes to her once-happily-vacated chair and pretends that she is still very much a part of the fun• Although the story has received little critical interest, the critics who do discuss it are--as is usually the case in Salinger criticism--in opposite camps. Gwyim and Blotner, in a slight but perceptive summary, see Edna as a wallflower Hwhose pathetic chatter and insinuations are skillfully rendered." Since "stupid Bill" is uninter ested, Edna retires "presumably to cry" and then returns "to pretend that she1s still part of the gaiety." 5 Warren French, on the other hand, makes a more exhaustive analysis of the story but has been unduly influenced by The Catcher in the Rye.

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