Finally a happy story!

Down at the Dinghy was, in my opinion, one of the more upbeat stories of Salinger’s nine. Although we are first exposed to the nasty maids to had called Lionel’s father a kike, the scene quickly changes to the dialogue between Lionel and Boo Boo. I really enjoyed their dialogue, because Salinger does so well to immerse us into their conversation. To be honest, I didn’t expect to feel any sort of connection with a character named Boo Boo, but as this mother continued to try and comfort Lionel, I couldn’t help but admire how she dealt with the situation.

"It is I," Boo Boo said. "Vice-Admiral Tannenbaum. Nee Glass. Come to inspect the stermaphors." There was a response. "You aren't an admiral. You're a lady," Lionel said. His sentences usually had at least one break of faulty breath control, so that, often, his emphasized words, instead of rising, sank. Boo Boo not only listened to his voice, she seemed to watch it. "Who told you that? Who told you I wasn't an admiral?" Lionel answered, but inaudibly. "Who?" said Boo Boo. "Daddy."

This was the very start of the dialogue between Boo Boo and Lionel, and we see how Boo Boo has decided to try and talk to Lionel rather than attempt to order him to come home. I was not expecting this, since I would have thought that Boo Boo would be angry that he ran away. This tone that is set in this first dialogue continues throughout the rest of the conversation which is why I found this story so positive. Some people may argue that this story is actually sad since the kid’s father is hated because he is Jewish and Lionel keeps running away, but Salinger is definitely trying to put the happy spin on the story which is especially seen in the last line: “They didn’t walk back to the house; they raced. Lionel won.”

I really enjoyed Down at the Dinghy, because it was a nice change from some of the depressing stories that we had seen before, especially Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut and Bananafish which also had to do with children.

What is Bananafish without context?

In the first of Nine stories, we encounter the bananafish story. Although this is one story, it was split into two parts. The first section was Muriel on the phone with her mother, and I believe that this section was mainly to give us context. Their conversation gives us insight into the possibility of Seymour having major issues. Although some of the setting presented to us in this first conversation, I believe that it served more as a way to tell us about Seymour. Although this is what Salinger meant to happen in the story, this first conversation sets a bias for readers throughout the rest of the bananafish story. I wanted to see what someone would think of Seymour and Sybil’s relationship without the worried commentary that the mother added to the story.

Thus I gave my sister the story this same short story, but without the first section. All I told her was “This is a story about some guy named Seymour who is on vacation with his wife at the beach. His wife is in the hotel and Sybil is some random girl from the hotel.” As with asking anything of a sibling, she was reluctant but still did the reading. So as she read I went downstairs and did the dishes (The only way she would read the story). When I came back up I asked her a couple of questions. I will list them here with paraphrased answers:

Q: What were your thoughts on the story as a whole?

A: What was that? Why did you make me read this it was creepy? What was wrong with Seymour?

Q: Think about the beginning of the story what did you initially think of the relationship between Seymour and Sybil?

A: I figured that it was a little weird that the mom would just let Sybil go off, but she seemed to know the guy. He had a couple of weird things that he said, but they weren’t too creepy.

Q: At what point did you think differently about the relationship?

A: I think it was around when they went into the ocean. When he kissed her foot that was really creepy. Who lets their daughter go off by themselves with a random man?

Q: What about the ending? Did it surprise you?

A: Why did he kill himself, and why was he so angry in the elevator? Who even was this guy?

Obviously the first question was too broad and without the context from before she had lots of questions, but the next two questions I think prompted a response to the question I was looking for (How much of an effect did the first section of the story have on the rest of it?). I asked those questions because I figured there would be some point when the wording of the story led my sister to the same creeped out feeling we all had from the beginning. Of course this is not scientific at all and has no actual representation of anything, but I found it interesting. Especially how in the end she had the same questions and feelings that we had, even though her thoughts on certain scenes differed from what I saw in class discussions. 

This was just a cool experiment I tried, if you guys have any comments on what you thought of the story and if you think you might have read the story differently without the first section please comment your thoughts.