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

For Esmé with Love and Squalor Themes

Little Words, Big Ideas

Youth

Youth is kind of the guiding light of "For Esmé – With Love and Squalor" – the war-scarred protagonist is brought back to life by a letter from a young friend of his, whose strengt...

Warfare

War is bad. If you didn't already know this, just read "For Esmé – With Love and Squalor" to understand just how bad. Despite the fact that we don't see any of the stereotypical elements...

Love

OK, this is the story of a grown man and a thirteen-year-old girl, so you might be alarmed to see "Love" as one of the themes. However, don't flip your wig – this isn't Lolita, and we're cert...

Literature and Writing

Any time you have a writer writing a story about a writer, you just know that literature is going to be a big deal. "For Esmé" is no different. While this story is, on one hand, about a soldie...

Foreignness and 'the Other'

"For Esmé" plays upon a common theme of war fiction, the idea of the American soldier abroad. The way people elsewhere (in this case, in England) view Americans is a central theme here. When l...