“For Esme – With Love and Squalor” has numerous autobiographical references to Salinger’s own experience in the Second World War, including his presence at the D-Day bombings, the battle of Hurtgen Forest, as well as his hospitalization from experiencing Combat Stress Reaction, a milder, short-living form of PTSD, which follows after the onset of the former. While most definitely a story of war and the resulting “squalor” and trauma that it involves, “To Esme” is also an affirmation of life, love, and empathy, its titular character embodies the revitalizing abilities of human warmth and connection.
For Esme – With Love and Squalor | Analysis
The two parts of the story are drastically different from each other, in tone, mood, and content. The first part is bright, cheerful, innocent, and humorous, full of the thirteen-year-old Esme’s innocent but precocious manner, the confidence and charisma that she projects despite being nervous, as well as the extremely interesting encounter that she has with the narrator. The childish antics of her brother Charles add to the brightness of the overall segment, as does the narrator’s “dry humor”.
Looking for a Summary of the story? Click here.
The language of the first part evokes wonder and amazement, especially in the narrator’s experience of hearing the choir sing, and in the physical description of Esme and Charles’ clothes and appearance. The fact that they are titled orphans also adds to the fairy-tale charm of this segment, and even the implicit references to war and D-day bombings do not dampen the tone. A hint of melancholy looms in Esme’s constant remembrances of her parents, especially her father, as she tries to pass off her own emotions and the loss that she experiences by projecting them on her little brother. The fact that she wears his watch as a memento, despite the fact that it does not suit him very well, reflects her love for her father and her attempts at keeping his memory with her at all times, through the watch which is a symbolic reminder of him. Her insistence on adding “squalor” to her story appears comic when contrasted with her own age and aura.
In sharp contrast to the first, the second part of the story embodies the squalor that Esme demanded. The tone changes to grim and the visuals are much darker than in the first part, as the old narrator is completely transformed by the trauma that he has experienced during the war, and appears like a completely different person, explaining the narrator’s assertion that he is present but disguised by the “squalor” of his condition.
The squalor is symbolized not only by the dark, dirty surroundings and the narrator’s physical unkemptness, but is also present in the very post-war psyche that is either traumatized by the war, or intent on denying, trivializing, or invisibilizing its trauma. Clay and his fiancée, Loretta, represent the latter. Although Clay tries his best to be supportive of the narrator, his lack of sensitivity and insight regarding the same, despite having been traumatized by the war himself (as exhibited in mindlessly shooting the cat), keeps him from being able to truly empathize with the narrator. Loretta, however, is outrightly degrading of the narrator, trivializing his trauma and labeling him as “unstable” even before the war, mirroring the general attitude of the government and the public who did not want to recognize the evils of warfare, intent on glorifying it as a playing field of masculine honor and glory. The narrator’s brother, with his demands of bayonets or swastikas as toys for his children, also exhibits this tokenization of the war, and the absolute insensitivity to its victims, both on the battlefield and in the concentration camps.
Esme’s letter is a warm flood of relief from this seemingly endless darkness and squalor. Although a child who has no first-hand understanding of the trauma of war, she is also a sufferer as she had lost her father in North Africa. Despite not knowing the real, bloody face of war, she unconsciously shows more empathy and understanding of what the narrator has experienced, her letter and her father’s watch literally become the talisman that revives the narrator, returning his faculties back to him intact, a line which is an allusion to Esme’s last words in the first part. The watch is a symbol of Esme’s love for both her father and the narrator, and there is an overriding of both in her gesture. It is her love, the warmth, and brightness that she brings with her innocent precociousness, and her sincere hope for the narrator’s well-being, which ultimately become the positive human contact and support necessary for the healing of the narrator’s trauma.
For Esme – With Love and Squalor | Themes
War– The story is a moving and squalid portrayal of war in its true horrors. Although it does not depict any bloody battle scenes, the story successfully paints the terrible impact that war has on its victims, either directly (like the narrator suffering from CSR induced by war trauma), or indirectly (like Esme, who has lost her father to war).
Squalor- The child protagonist’s comic mock-serious insistence on squalor is fulfilled in the truly squalid depictions of the post-war realities of the second part. Squalor is not only present in the physical setting of the narrator’s room or his unkempt appearance and uncontrollable movements but also in the psychology of the society at large, trying their best to deny the effects of war trauma. This state is symbolized by the inscription on the Nazi woman’s book – “God, life is hell”.
Childhood/Humanity – If war is the breeding ground of trauma, death, and squalor, childhood represents the warmth of sincere human connection that can revive even the worst victims of war. The childish innocence of Esme and Charles, her sincerity and generosity towards a man she has only met once through complete coincidence, and her heartfelt token of love in the form of her father’s watch, talismanic only because of the purity of feeling that it embodies, is enough to heal even the scariest of wounds. Through their inherent purity and goodness, children like Esme embody the humanity that is missing from an adult society ravaged by war.
For Esme – With Love and Squalor | Characters
Esme – The titular character and one of the two protagonists of the story, Esme is the bride whose wedding invitation to the narrator forms the frame narrative. In the story, she is an orphaned girl of thirteen – confident, precocious, exceptionally intelligent, assertive, and generous. Despite her ladylike poise and precociousness, her curiosity and self-importance betray her innocent nature. Although her aunt is kind, her comment on Esme being “extremely cold” has a lasting effect on her, which she tries to undo in her meeting with the narrator. However, this assessment is very far from the truth, as it is Esme’s warmth and the sincerity of her feeling embodied in her gift to the narrator, that heals him from his battlefield experiences.
The narrator/ Staff Sergeant X – In the first part, the first-person narrator is introverted but confident, charming, and humorous, easily winning the hearts of two young children at least one of whom is quite hard to please. In the second part, however, Sergeant X appears to be a completely different character, transformed by the horrors of his battlefield experiences and suffering from Combat Stress Reaction. He has lost his confidence and humor, and what remains is a sarcastic shell that hides his bitterness toward the rest of the world.
Clay – Corporal Clay is the narrator’s compatriot, having been with him throughout the war. Although he tries his best to be a supportive friend, he is in denial about his own trauma and as a result, fails to understand the narrator’s problem. However, he fails to defend his friend against the insensitivity of his fiancée, becoming defensive instead when X calls out her short-sightedness.
Loretta – Clay’s fiancée, Loretta, is a psychology major who, ironically, is extremely insensitive to the severity of war trauma, and trivializes the narrator’s experiences, labeling him as ‘unstable’.
For Esme – With Love and Squalor | Significance of the Title
The title “To Esme – With Love and Squalor”, represents the two dominant emotions that rule the text, love, represented by the connection between the thirteen-year-old Esme and the narrator, her warmth, generosity, kindness, and understanding, and squalor, a theme she is interested in and demands to be included in her story, which is mirrored by the post-war conditions of the second part of the story.
