I only realized a few days ago that《麥田守望者》 is actually the Chinese translation of "The Catcher In The Rye". The phrase 麥田守望者 has popped up here and there ever since I started hanging out in Chinese cyberland. For some reasons I always thought it was a song, maybe by 王菲.
Of course the revelation came because of the recent pass away of J. D. Salinger, the author of “The Catcher in the Rye”. I’m only slightly above average in term of reading diligence and far from being well read, as famous as “The Catcher in the Rye” it remains in the “to be conquered” category for me. However, I did enjoy reading the two short stories in J. D. Salinger’s ‘Nine Stories” during my first year in America. Like many new immigrants who are in their teen, the high school experience can be described as culturally shocking at best. My English class was one of the few bright spots in a day because I got the chance to expose to material that I never knew before, such as the reading of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé - with Love & Squalor". By the way, although I love the stories, it was years later before I found out they were written by Salinger
A Perfect Day for Bananafish
"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is about the encounter between a disoriented, confused man and a young innocent girl on a beach when he was vacationing with his wife. The man appeared very bewildered and his conversation to the girl was often inexplicable. For instance he told the girl about a certain unusual species of fish called Bananafish. After their chance meeting the man went back to his hotel, seeing his wife sound sleeping in her bed he pointed a gun to his temple and shot himself.
The part of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” that stays in my mind the most is the girl’s repeatedly saying “See More Glass, See More Glass”. At first I thought she meant she was seeing glasses in the beach water. Turn out she was actually referring to the protagonist because his name is Seymour Glass, one of the Glass family members that recurrently appeared in many Salinger’s work.
Because of the story title, I would imagine Bananafish here would mean suicide. However, there is no clear explanation what the motive is except we can infer that Seymour Glass is suffering from some severe mental anguish through his behavior. It is the kind of story that is open to different interpretations. Since “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” is the first in the short stories collection "Nine Stories" I like to draw my own interpretation through another story in the collection - "For Esmé - with Love & Squalor"
For Esmé - with Love & Squalor
Unlike “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, the narrative of “For Esmé - with Love & Squalor” is the protagonist, an unnamed Army Sergeant, himself instead of the omnipresent author. He recounted the meetings he had with a young girl named Esmé at three different points of his life: First the present when he was sending his blessing to her (for her upcoming wedding if I remember correctly) in writing, then he flashbacked to their first encounter many years ago just before he was sent into combat, and finally on the verge of nervous breakdown during the midst of battle, he received a letter from Esmé just at the nick of time, which helped him to endure the trauma of war and eventually brought the narrative back to the present.
It is through this story I first came to know the word Squalor because it was with Love and Squalor that the protagonist was sending his blessing to Esmé, thus the story’s title.
Squalor – n. A filthy and wretched condition
Normally squalor is not something you would like to send someone your love with. However, in this case there is just something really endearing in it because of all the difficult time they have gone through. Next time if you want to send your regard to someone you have long history with, you may want to keep the word Squalor in mind.
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