Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2011 Salinger and the Phases of War Johnson Elizabeth Downing Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/233 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Downing Johnson 1 ©Elizabeth Downing Johnson 2011 All Rights Reserved Salinger and the Phases of War A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. By Elizabeth Downing Johnson, BA in English Virginia Commonwealth University 2009 Director: Dr. A.B. Mangum Professor of English, College of Humanities and Sciences Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia May, 2011 Acknowledgements Throughout the arduous process of researching and writing my thesis, I have received an amazing amount of support and encouragement. I acknowledge first my gratitude and humility that my faith brings me every day, for every project I undertake. As for the people who live on this earth, these people have kept me fed, sane, happy, and smiling throughout the last two years and I would like to take the time to thank them. First, I thank my husband, Dwight, who has endured enough chattering about J.D. Salinger for two lifetimes. To him I have pledged my heart, and every day I learn that it was the best decision I ever made. I thank my father, who has provided not only a great amount of encouragement, but also some military background that would have been otherwise unavailable. I am glad that he is home with us now, and to him I say thank you, and Hooah. I thank Dr. Bryant Mangum, who has given me his time, his wisdom, and his encouragement to complete what I thought might be an impossible task. I only hope that someday I can do something with all this knowledge to honor him, since he deserves it. He is a mentor, a friend, a wonderful teacher, and a true inspiration. I thank my thesis committee, Dr. Cliff Edwards, who took a chance on a girl he had never heard of, Dr. Katherine Clay Bassard, who taught me at the beginning of graduate school that I could, indeed, get through this program, and Dr. Katherine Nash, who, in addition to being one of the greatest teachers I‘ve ever met, is also a great inspiration to me. I thank my friends in the English department, notably Joey Kingsley, who stayed up until all hours to proofread my thesis, Lee Spratley, who has been a true friend and source of unbridled enthusiasm that has brightened some of my darkest days, Chrissie Griffith, who tells me I‘m cool and makes me believe it, and most of all, Angelica Bega-Hart. Angelica stayed up late to proofread my thesis, she has been my friend, my partner in crime, and I can say with all certainty that I can‘t think of anybody whom I‘d care to send out to look for horses in her stead. We have a long road to go my friend, and many more adventures ahead. Last, but not least…not least at all, I thank and dedicate this thesis to my mother. She has been my sounding board, my proofreader, my rock, my light, my support, and my best friend through this and every other journey in my life. She is the most amazing person I will ever know, and I thank God, the universe, and pure dumb luck that I ended up with her as my mother. Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................. i Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 Post-War Complacency—Post WWI, Pre WWII…………………………………………………………………………………………………......12 Pre War Anticipation………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………16 The Horror Phase……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………21 Post-War Trauma………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…25 Post-War Complacency-Post WWII………………………………………………………………………………………………………..49 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….61 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..63 Appendix A: Diagram of Cycle………………………………………………………………………………………………………………66 Appendix B: Table of Stories with Estimated Composition and Publication Dates………………………………...67 Abstract SALINGER AND THE PHASES OF WAR By Elizabeth Downing Johnson, BA English A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011 Major Director: Dr. A.B. Mangum, Professor of English, College of Humanities and Sciences A study of J.D. Salinger‘s war fiction, from the earlier, uncollected works to two of his most famous short stories. There is a cycle of phases present in the body of Salinger‘s war fiction that is informed by the author‘s own experiences in World War II, and is clearly demonstrated in the progression of his war fiction. The stories show a progression from a post World War I complacency, into fear and apprehension about war, into a horror phase about the war, into devastating post-war trauma, and finally back into a similar post-war complacency similar to the one found in the earlier stories. Downing Johnson 1 Salinger and the Phases of War In a 1991 article by William F. Purcell called ―World War II and the Early Fiction of J.D. Salinger,‖ To date, Purcell is the only scholar who has examined, as its own collection, Salinger‘s early war fiction, saying that ―in these stories we can see most clearly the crucial role that the war played in defining the spiritual and moral crises of the early heroes, and the implications that it has for the later ones‖ (Purcell 77). That statement is most certainly, irrevocably, true. However, Purcell goes on to say that ―in Salinger‘s stories the war is more an unavoidable circumstance. It functions as a catalyst which intrudes into the character‘s private world and forces him to consider those things about life that he values most‖ (Purcell 79). This assessment seriously undercuts the importance of war in both Salinger‘s early war fiction, as well as in what Gwynn and Blotner call his ―High Point‖ in ―For Esmé – With Love and Squalor‖ (Gwynn and Blotner 4) and his ―Classic Period‖ (Gwynn and Blotner 19) story ―A Perfect Day for Bananafish.‖ Purcell calls war an ―unavoidable circumstance‖ (Purcell 79), something the characters simply endure in order to reach their true feelings about love, family, and relationships, but in Salinger‘s fiction, war is much more than this. War becomes an important subject in Salinger‘s fiction–so important that he makes a study of the varied responses of individuals to war–to the anticipation one feels prior to war, the horror of war itself, and to the trauma that lies post-war. In his war studies, Salinger depicts various discernable patterns of behavior that people exhibit in the face of war in its reality and aftermath. He places his characters in contact with one or more of the phases of war–pre-war, war itself, and post-war– and shows how the various phases affect the individual.1 In dividing Salinger‘s war stories into groupings determined by the particular phase or phases of war confronting the characters in the stories, the reader can gain insight into Salinger‘s knowledge–based as it is on his own 1 See Appendix A for a diagram of Salinger’s war cycle experiences–about the complex and sometimes paradoxical reactions men can have to war. For the Salinger student, this offers a new perspective on Salinger scholarship that has, until now, been neglected. Much Salinger criticism, especially criticism dealing with his more famous stories, starts typically with his later work and moves backward, rarely making it as far back as the earlier war stories. In an examination of Seymour Glass, for example, scholars start with examinations of ―Seymour – An Introduction‖ and ―Hapworth 16, 1924‖ for insight into Seymour‘s character and his actions. In scholarly pieces on ―For Esmé – With Love and Squalor,‖ critics often start with examinations of things in Salinger‘s fiction like the innocence of children or the banality of ―phonies,‖ leaning heavily on The Catcher in the Rye and Holden‘s disdain for them. As for the uncollected earlier fiction, one is hard-pressed to find any substantial criticism. Thus far, no published scholars have taken a critical approach to Salinger‘s work focusing on the war fiction chronologically, inclusive of his two collected war stories, ―A Perfect Day for Bananafish‖ and ―For Esmé – With Love and Squalor,‖ while examining the cycles of war presented as a common thread throughout his war fiction. Purcell would argue that war and its stages is a subject at the forefront of the work, but that it is merely a backdrop to the characters‘ more emotional pursuits. In a sense, the war functions only to highlight family, love, and contentment that war lacks. (Purcell 79). As stated previously, war is certainly at the forefront of the war stories and each story represents one or more of the stages of war found in Salinger‘s war fiction as a whole. Each story fits into one or more of the following phases that Salinger clearly develops in his war fiction: pre-war anticipation, which is characterized by fear, apprehension, and dread; wartime itself, characterized by the horror of war and the mental and physical anguish experienced in battle; or post-war recovery, characterized by shock, trauma, numbness, or complacency. Certain stories deal with more than one phase, while the same character will experience different phases in different stories, like Babe Gladwaller.