Salinger's Short Stories: Alienation, War, and Eastern Philosophy

Introduction: Salinger Beyond Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger is an American literary treasure, best known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye. However, that novel is but one part of the broader Salinger canon. His short stories have recently garnered renewed attention, in part because several unpublished works were leaked online in November 2013, three years after the author's death (Runcie, 2013). Salinger died a recluse — a man of mystery who was, in many ways, as much an American antihero as Holden Caulfield of The Catcher in the Rye. There have been numerous cultural allusions to Salinger's iconic novel and its quintessentially postmodern protagonist. Although no film has ever been made directly from The Catcher in the Rye, Morgan (2010) points out that there have been allusions to Salinger's stories in films like The Collector (1965) and Six Degrees of Separation (1993). Additionally, a 2013 documentary about Salinger promised to reveal the multiple personas of one of America's most celebrated writers. Themes of alienation and the futility of Western material culture recur throughout his short stories.

Eastern Philosophy and Intercultural Themes in 'Teddy'

Salinger's short stories may not be as famous as The Catcher in the Rye, but they say just as much about the author's cultural and historical context. "Teddy" follows in the footsteps of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha in introducing Eastern philosophy and meditation practices to a Western audience. Serving as an intercultural communicator, Salinger uses "Teddy" as a vehicle for subverting Western religious and social norms. In an obituary for Salinger, Gopnik (2010) refers to "the myth of the author as homespun religious mystic" (p. 1). "Teddy" reflects the author's affection for Eastern modes of thought, especially with regard to attitudes toward death and dying. The title character believes fully in reincarnation. His advanced philosophical thinking causes the adults around him to view him as a kind of superchild, and Teddy remains cautiously cynical. In spite of the cynicism brewing beneath the surface of Salinger's fiction and in his key protagonists, there is also an inescapable core of idealism. Teddy, like Caulfield, blends cynicism and idealism in compelling ways that make these quintessential postmodern antiheroes.

Gopnik (2010) refers to Salinger as "an expansive romantic" — a phrase that connotes not the Romanticism of the nineteenth century but a postmodern interpretation of it. Salinger's romanticism is expressed as a return to the child's innocent yet pressing curiosity about the essence of life and death. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," the author explores interpersonal relationships in more detail than in "Teddy," while also developing one of his prevailing themes: human social alienation in the modern age. Social alienation, in Salinger's view, can prompt the individual to pursue spiritual inquiry.

Alienation, Nihilism, and the Critique of American Culture

Embedded in — and overtly expressed by — Salinger's stories is a critique of American culture. American culture functions as a symbol of social sickness, contributing to alienation and isolation. However, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and especially "Teddy" suggest that suffering is a universal human condition, and that even Eastern religions offer little more than psychological salve or, at best, material for fruitful intellectual inquiry.

Salinger sets out to portray nihilism as a valid response to social alienation. In both stories, self-annihilation is a core motif. Seymour's suicide in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is far more overt and graphic than the demise of Teddy, which is highly ambiguous. Yet from a thematic standpoint it does not matter whether Teddy lives or dies. Teddy himself does not care: he knows that when — not if — he dies, he will simply be reborn.

Salinger also explores the ironies inherent in the human social dynamic, particularly with respect to the boundary between self and other. His own reaction to the fame brought by The Catcher in the Rye may illuminate why he developed the theme of being unable to switch between the social self and introspective inquiry. In "Teddy," the title character does not try to impress others, yet adults are fascinated and intimidated by him. As a result, Teddy finds that he has no distinct role to play — a situation that parallels Salinger's own life. Salinger struggled with the public's projection of fame onto his persona. He remarked in a 1980 interview: "There's a marvelous peace in not publishing… There's stillness. When you publish, the world thinks you owe something. If you don't publish, they don't know what you're doing. You can keep it for yourself" (cited in Runcie, 2013). There is tremendous irony in these words. On one hand, they suggest that a writer would be psychologically healthier without the burdens of publication — publicity, fame, and expectation. On the other hand, a writer who does not publish produces a body of work that serves only a self-serving, perhaps narcissistic function. Salinger trod shaky ground throughout his career as he withdrew from the public eye. Stories like "Teddy" and "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" show how he used short fiction to project and work through his own ambivalence toward fame.

Conclusion

Being the only sane person in an insane world is one of Salinger's defining literary devices. The author has a finger on the pulse of American culture, especially within the Cold War context. In short stories like "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "Teddy," J.D. Salinger explores themes of alienation and isolation that remain as resonant today as when they were first published.

References

Gopnik, A. (2010). Postscript: J.D. Salinger. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/02/08/100208ta_talk_gopnik

McGrath, C. (2010). J.D. Salinger, literary recluse, dies at 91. International New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/books/29salinger.html

Morgan, K. (2010). Six stories: Salinger inspired cinema. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from

Runcie, C. (2013, November 28). JD Salinger unpublished stories 'leaked online.' The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10480275/JD-Salinger-unpublished-stories-leaked-online.html

Slawenski, K. (2011). Holden Caulfield's goddam war. Vanity Fair. Retrieved from http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/02/salinger-201102