Salinger's Critique of Materialism
In several of the stories from Nine Stories, J. D. Salinger seems to be critiquing the materialistic nature of people in upper-class society, especially in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut.” In each of these stories, Salinger also includes a character, usually a child, who is more innocent and doesn’t care about material wealth.
In “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Muriel is the epitome of an upper-class, privileged woman. She is overly concerned about her appearance (as can be seen by details such as her Saks blouse and her painting her nails) and takes her time answering the phone even though she has been waiting for two hours. Throughout the story, she is portrayed in a negative light. First, in the phone call with her mother, Muriel seems too concerned with superficial gossip to realize that something is wrong with her husband. Her mother brings up some serious incidents that have occured, and even though we as readers don’t get the details, it’s clear that Seymour needs help. Muriel has the chance to talk to a psychiatrist who could help Seymour, but instead she chooses to socialize. Even Muriel’s mother seems to know and care more about Seymour than Muriel does.
Seymour, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Muriel. He doesn’t fit in with the other adults at the hotel, and instead likes to spend time with children such as Sybil and Sharon Lipschultz. He doesn’t seem to think much of Muriel either. When Sybil asks where Muriel is, Seymour replies “She may be in one of a thousand places. At the hairdresser’s. Having her hair dyed mink” and quickly changes the subject. He would rather talk to Sybil about more childish topics, as he wants to return to a more innocent way of life.
In “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut,” both Eloise and Mary Jane are shown to be extremely superficial. Eloise wears a camel-hair coat and insists on fixing Mary Jane’s pronunciation of Merritt Parkway, just to show that she is superior. Also, even though the both of them talk to each for a long time, their conversation doesn’t actually mean anything. All they do is talk about about their time in college and people from that time, Eloise and Mary Jane don’t seem to know each other that well as their conversation has no meaning to it, except for when they briefly discuss Eloise and Lew’s marriage. Additionally, neither of them is truly happy. Eloise has a basically fake marriage and doesn’t love her daughter. And from what we know about Mary Jane, it doesn’t seem like she has a real purpose in her life. She doesn’t have a family and her job doesn’t seem to mean much to her. The only person in this story who isn’t “fake” is Ramona, another child. She doesn’t care about having fake friends (like her mother) and is instead happy with her imaginary ones.
With these stories, Salinger is demonstrating his disapproval of the materialistic nature of people, especially those in the upper class. Instead, he prefers the innocence of young children.
I like this blog post because I agree that Salinger really has a nice way of rejecting more adult values. You point out several times that Salinger prefers the more childish way of living and thinking. We see the adults being portrayed as miserable or shallow or unkind in many of the stories.
ReplyDeleteSalinger does seem to be particularly fond of children, and particularly disdainful of the upper class. His stories have a tendency to make the reader more sympathetic to the children, in the stories that you mentioned as well as other ones such as "The Laughing Man". The characters who seem particularly fond of material wealth are likewise portrayed in ways that make them seem foolish or nasty. In "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", for example, Ginnie is much more interested in Selena's brother, the one who doesn't seem to care about things such as appearance, than in any of the more posh characters, similar to what Salinger's views seem to be.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the things you outlined in your blog post, and they seem to echo themes from Catcher in the Rye. I think that one thing that's different about Muriel and Eloise is that Eloise seems to be presented as a more complex, conflicted character. While Muriel remains indifferent throughout, Eloise has experienced youth and innocence before with Walt, so she constantly craves it. And at the end, she breaks down, realizing who she's become.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, almost every adult character Salinger introduces either seems somewhat shallow and invested in materialistic gain, or somehow seeks the idea of childhood youth and innocence. The fact that he often includes a younger character (such as Ramona and Sybil) to contrast this materialistic adult behavior emphasizes the effect of their portrayal. Like I mentioned in my post, I am interested to see if similar themes like these occur in the next stories. However, in the Laughing Man, we didn't really get any glimpse of this idea so who knows.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your interpretation of the younger people seeming "pure" in comparison with the petty and materialistic adults. This is a little tangential, but your points about Salinger's framework also made me think of Home a little bit and the depiction of Ryan's parents and their high-brow, insubstantial jabbering in contrast to Mikey, who we decided in class was a bit childish by comparison.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if materialistic is the right word but I definitely do agree that Salinger uses child characters to add contrast throughout the stories to add a new perspective for the readers. The adults that you mentioned seemed to have lost the childhood innocence and have turned to focus more on class and "self importance". It is also interesting that in "laughing Man" Chief connects with the children until the separation with Mary, perhaps the hard socks of life suck out the innocence. GrEat PoSt.
ReplyDeleteI always noticed the materialism of the characters in the stories whether it was through actions or possessions, but I never thought that Salinger would be trying to make a statement about them. Now that I think of it the adults are portrayed very negatively in nearly all of the stories. Considering that he was a very solitary person who avoided fame and media, it does kind of make sense.
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