For Esmé with Love and Squalor
For Esmé with Love and Squalor
by J.D. Salinger

For Esmé with Love and Squalor Characters

Meet the Cast

The Narrator (Sergeant X)

Throughout the story, the narrator is a fundamentally good guy, even if he's got his share of troubles. However, we do see two dramatically different versions of the same character in this story. I...

Esmé

This girl is seriously a trip. She's a polished, polite, dignified, blue-blooded aristocratic lady – and she's only thirteen. Esmé is a proper lady (she has a noble title and everything)...

Charles

At five years old, Charles is understandably far less polished and together than his older sister – he's a little kid, and he convincingly does all the things little kids do, like tell bad jo...

Clay (Corporal Z)

Clay, the closest thing Sergeant X has to a war buddy, is basically everything our narrator is not – he's cheerful, happy-go-lucky, and apparently emotionally untouched by the war. He's that...

Miss Megley

Miss Megley is not the most effective governess – she's no Mary Poppins. She doesn't have much of a role, except to exert some control over when Esmé and Charles come and go. She's theor...