The collection of short stories written by Salinger titled Nine Stories seems to be a very bright and controversial work of this famous, outstanding author. Reading these stories one can come to ambiguous conclusions that will differ individually because of the symbolic, mysterious and at times humorous manner of writing. This collection was published in 1953 and is still extensively read and studied. For this reason it is necessary to take a closer look at the stories included in the collection and analyse them.
The first story of the collection, A Perfect Day for Bananafish, sounds more as a beginning of something greater but not a finished work. It tells about the last day of life of Seymour Glass who had a rest at the beach while his wife was chatting with her mother about trifles, sometimes including phrases about the heavy illness of her husband (Salinger). Too much attention is paid to their senseless talk about clothes and appearance to have time to focus on the deep psychological problems Seymour has. Further on the swim of Seymour with the girl called Sybil is depicted, but it is again too senseless and has too many deviations that the reader unwillingly thinks that both interlocutors simply do not hear each other. The ending is very unexpected and touching, it leaves much food for thought, but since the story of Seymour was not told in more detail it is hard for the reader to generally understand the reasons for suicide or to sympathise him (Salinger).
Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut is another story about unsuccessful lives and disappointment two drunken women express in their sad talk in the afternoon (Salinger). They discuss what they had in life, what chances it gave them in the past and how they lost all that without realizing the mistakes then and feeling bitter regret at the present moment. It is really deeply touching to read the story of lives that could have been different but have turned into what these two women represent at the moment they are depicted and makes one think about the sense of life and wisdom of actions seriously.
The third story, Just Before the War with the Eskimos, is probably the most symbolic and unexplainable one within the whole collection. The discussion of Ginnie Mannox and Franklin is full of symbols and metaphors, they speculate over their place and attitude to life on a metaphysical level, which offers a very wide scope for interpretation of the meaning they include in their words (Salinger). The story The laughing Man is also interesting, but here the main peculiarity is the structure – encapsulating a story within a story (Salinger). The next story is Down the Dinghy – it depicts the relations between the mother and the son who heard bad things about his father. It is highly expressive in the way Boo Boo (mother) manages to calm the troubled child down and to make him come back home (Salinger).
The story For Esmé – with Love and Squalor is very inspiring and is not similar to other stories. It is the story of the unfulfilled promise Sergeant X gave to Esme and failed to fulfil it because of the mental illness. On receiving the gift from Esme and its symbolic recovery from damage the Sergeant himself recovers (Salinger). Another story Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes is also a clear, interesting and witty one about the two lawyers’ talk over the phone, with one complaining of his wife and the other one being her lover. The ending is really surprising, but still it arouses great pity for the man who lied to the one who would reveal his lies at once (Salinger).
De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period is the funniest and the most positive story of all – it tells about the artistic ambitions of the person who does not know what art really is and who finally discovers the beauty of art in the work of a nun, becoming a completely different person finally (Salinger). The culmination of all stories, Teddy, is an interesting summary of all ideas expressed in the eight previous stories. However, it is again too ambiguous and practically impossible to interpret. As in many stories of his, Salinger included the unexpected and unexplainable ending.
Drawing a general conclusion from the collection of stories, it is possible to say that the stories are surely thought-provoking and worth reading, but at times they appear too symbolic and allusive. It is hard for the reader who is unfamiliar with the previous stories about the same characters to understand what the author is driving at. Besides, the characteristic unexpected and unintelligible endings misguide the reader much – all this forms an unusually strange and unexplainable feeling on reading the stories and trying to make out the meaning the author included in them.