Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum

     Death and what follows it has been prominent in the Salinger stories we read, mainly in "Teddy" and "A Perfect Day for Bananafish."  Many times in literature and in life,  death is sad, or perceived as an end to something.  Contrarily, in Salinger's story "Teddy," it is treated much more softly, almost with indifference, if not some kind of serene acceptance.  This may seem odd without the spiritual context of the story, for many people have different religious backgrounds which influence their life, and, in the case of authors, their work.  What is so interesting about this work is the Zen Buddhist and Hindu influence, instead of Judeo-Christian influence, or agnostic or atheist influence, which would be more typical in American authors up to this point.  Through this influence, death is nothing to fear, as people are reborn after death, or achieve Enlightenment.  Teddy speaks a little about this in the story.  He says the professors "are still pretty afraid to die...It's so silly...all you do is get the heck out of your body when you die.  My gosh, everybody's done it thousands and thousands of times" (193).  In this way, death is nothing to fear, as people have done it many times, and leads to another life.

This is what Teddy means when he says people "wake up"--they die to be reborn into another person.  Though, some vestige of their former life remains, as Teddy says, "I wouldn't have had to get incarnated into an American body if I hadn't met that lady" (188).  He says itis difficult to lead a spiritual life in America, and many people find it silly.  This suggests some sort of discipline after his relationship with the woman, which caused him to stop meditating.  Other than this, there seem to be no bad aspects to death in the story, except the pain it causes those close to the deceased.

In this way, death is not scary.  This helps alleviate the story's jarring ending, with Booper presumably pushing Teddy into the empty pool, and softens Seymour's suicide.  I wonder if Salinger ever thought of these characters' next lives, or even wrote anything about it.  It would be interesting to find out.  Some people may not have liked the philosophical and religious aspect of "Teddy," but I did, because it was so different from other works I have read.  This makes for a very compelling story, even if a 10-year-old dies at the end--we know that he is somewhere else, either in Enlightenment, or in another body.

Set-up Seymour

In A Perfect Day for Bananafish, the reader has an introductory scene of dialogue between an woman (Muriel) and her mother.  Muriel is staying with her husband at an upscale resort in Florida.  The mother is worried about her daughter, and what might happen because of her eccentric husband, Seymour.  Salinger sets us up to think that Seymour is some kind of monster, or at least highly unstable.  He does this through short phrases in the dialogue that hint at Seymour's history.

The first way Salinger does this is by having the mother repeatedly ask, "Are you okay?," when we know that Muriel has been married to Seymour for quite some time.  The repetition shows the mother's concern, which sets up our thoughts of Seymour.  The first example to appear is the mother's worry about Seymour's driving, along with the part about the "trees."  It seems Seymour had fairly recently crashed Muriel's family's car because he wanted to see the trees.  Muriel's mother then talks about her consultation with a psychiatrist, which adds more to the audience's concern.  Then, the doctor's wife asked if Seymour is related to a Suzanne Glass who owned a millinery--a hat-making shop.  The glue used to bind hats together was toxic, and prolonged exposure to it had many side effects, including mental ones.  This is where the term "mad hatter" originates, and is another subtle hint on Salinger's part.  Then the mother mentions something about "Granny's chair" and they talk about Seymour wearing his bathrobe on the beach.

All this makes the reader quite concerned for Sybil.  However, the scene can be read as partially confirming our suspicions, with Seymour having malicious intent.  This can be supported in spots when her calls her "my love" or when he kisses her foot.  However, it is also possible to read the scene as him playing innocently with a little kid. (The foot-kiss is still pretty sketchy though.)  In reading this way, we see Seymour as detached from adult society, so he seeks the company of children possibly to re-live his childhood.  Also, when read this way, the reader sees Salinger's set-up monster as a very troubled person.  The introduction takes on a different meaning that way.  I think this is one thing that makes the story interesting, that Salinger sets the reader up thinking that Seymour is a monster, but then shows him to be a very troubled individual.  This makes his suicide at the ending all the more tragic.