Catcher In The Rye And For Esm

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After completing the story, I discovered that the two stories had a lot in common with each other. It was mainly because of Salinger's narrative style and other writing technique's he uses in these two great stories.
Both of these stories are in first person point of view but "The Catcher in the Rye" is in subjective narration. Holden Caulfield is a teenager who sees the world as an evil and corrupted place where there is no peace. "That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "F*** you" right under your nose" (Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye). Salinger uses the innocence of Holden Caulfield's view of the world for the subject narration.
Salinger cleverly reverses this effect in "For Esme - with love and squalor". He uses the point of view of a young adult to interact with the young girl, Esme. The results in the reader ...

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questions, which the led to Holden staying at home. You can say that it was Phoebe's humanly emotions but I have no doubt that she stopped paying attention to Holden so he would hopefully change his mind.
Another interesting similarity between Phoebe and Esme is that they both are portrayed as being children but having the attitude of adults. Holden did not just call his sister by her name, "Phoebe", but instead he would call her "Old Phoebe". "She would wear white gloves and walk right between us, like a lady and all" (Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye). Esme was no different from Phoebe. The adult in "For Esme - with love and squalor" also had thoughts of Esme acting ...

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