Talk:For Esmé with Love and Squalor
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for esme with love and sqalor is a story about the problems of post war generation.they seek peace life in love;however,their ancesters sought it in war. Zabihollah Eslami
eslami_28@yahoo.com
Was Charles autistic?
-WalterJid
- I'm not sure, and I don't see any evidence for or against it in the text, though it is possible. Thunk 06:18, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "...It is more widely accepted that Sergeant X and Seymour Glass are the same person"
Does the Sergeant have to be either? He receives a letter from an *older* brother in Albany - Buddy did live in upstate New York (c.f. 'Franny and Zooey') but was Seymour's younger brother. Also the implication of crassness in the letter detracts from the idea that it is Buddy, and Buddy did not seem to have any children in his 1951 letter in 'Zooey'. The fact that Buddy was not married subtracts from his being the narrator (who is married, c.1949-50, in 'For Esme') either.81.98.43.135 16:42, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
Buddy Glass and Sergeant X have nothing alike. I don't remember anything about Buddy being in the war, but he might have been. And I don't think Sergeant X and Seymour could be the same because Sergeant X begins to recover, whereas Seymour doesn't and commits suicide. There are similarities between the two (i.e. shell shock, love of children) but I think the themes and growth of the two characters do not match up.
[edit] X is a personification of Salinger's own experience with the war?
I just noticed tonight that Salinger himself had fought in the war, and Sergeant X seems similar to him. They both were occupying Germany after the war itself, and both arrested minor female Nazi officials but didn't really hate them, and Salinger himself was said to have been a bit shellshocked by the war, especially when he helped liberate a concentration camp. I just thought, tonight, that this story might be a telling of his own story. (With a few embellishments and differences, of course.) What thoughts do you people have on this? Thunk 06:24, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
I thought the same when I first read it, but I don't think there is enough evidence to really say either way. 165.123.164.232 07:11, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
