"For Esme--with Love and Squalor" by J. D. Salinger

133 D Day: In general military terms, this is "the unnamed day on which a particular operation commences or is to commence" (Dictionary of Military Terms). In this story it specifically refers to the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy by Allied forces. "As our boat touched sand and the ramp went down I became a visitor to hell," is the feeling of Private Charles Neighbor which echoes in Salinger's story as well. See links:

133 Quonset: A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated steel having a semicircular cross section (Guampedia). See Quonset Huts for its production history. Even more production details and specifications at Quonset Hut.

133 V-mail: American military method of corresponding home during World War II.

135 dickeybird: a small bird (Merriam-Webster); adults talking to children sometimes use these words to refer to small birds (WordNet 3.0)

Study Questions

Explore the presence of Esmé’s mysterious and absent father. His large chronograph encircles her wrist, calling attention to nail-bitten fingers, yet the girl incongruously describes him as an amateur archivist (149) who was “s-l-a-i-n in North Africa” and that Charles “misses our father very much” (146). Why is his relationship to her portrayed in this way? What other squalid legacies does he leave behind?
Despite her age, Esmé has an exceptionally mature vocabulary and sense of irony and tone. When the narrator says that he “was visiting Devonshire for [his] health,” she immediately responds with an incredulous “Really…I wasn’t quite born yesterday, you know” (142). The older Clay, on the other hand, hearing the narrator’s “I’ll look at my stamp collection,” says “Yeah? You got a stamp collection? I didn’t know you—” (168). Yet the “truth-lover or a statistics-lover” charms X because of her youth and innocence. How is she innocent? How is Clay no longer unsullied?
Paradise and hell figure variously in Salinger’s story. Loretta, Corporal Z’s girlfriend, is described as writing “from a paradise of triple exclamation points and inaccurate observations” (163). Another woman, a Nazi Party official, writes in her book, “Dear God, life is hell” (159). Choose an object or a short passage to close read for its heavenly or hellish implications in the story. Some objects that might be interesting to focus on: letters, the wristwatch, hands. Scenes you can examine: the children’s choir practice, writing the quote from Dostoevsky, feeling “almost ecstatically” sleepy.
What is D Day? What does Die Zeit Ohne Beispiel mean? How do these fit in to the running motif of special and memorable days or time in J. D. Salinger’s short story?
War: In what ways does war touch the lives of these characters?
Humor: Esme tells the narrator at one point in their conversation: "Father said I have no sense of humor at all. He said I was unequipped to meet life because I have no sense of humor" (148). Do you think Esme has a sense of humor? What comic moments are there in the story and why are they funny? By the end of the story, which pronouncement prevails: the father's or the narrator's not thinking that "a sense of humor was of any use in a real pinch"?

Sample Student Response to J. D. Salinger's story "For Esme--with Love and Squalor"

Student Name

2202234 Introduction to the Study of English Literature

Acharn Sorn Nangsue

June 21, 2010

Reading Response 1

Title

Text.

Salinger, J. D. "For Esme--with Love and Squalor." 1950. Nine Stories. Boston: Little, Brown, 1953. 131–73. Print.