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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Allusions
Explanation and Analysis—Rilke:
During Muriel's phone conversation with her mother, she asks if her mother knows where she might find a book Seymour sent her from Germany. Seymour asked if she read it and said she should have bought a translation of it, since it was in German—after all, he reasoned, the writer was the "only great poet of the century." Although Salinger doesn't explicitly name the poet, critics speculate that he is alluding to Rilke here, since Rilke is recognized as one of the most important and well-known writers in the German language.
Rilke, like members of the Glass family in Salinger's stories, was preoccupied with mysticism—the belief in a state of altered consciousness through which one can achieve full understanding of the divine. Disillusioned by the horrors of war, it follows that Seymour is drawn to a search for higher purpose and meaning. During his deployment, he tried to communicate something to Muriel via the poems, but he sent her a book in a language she doesn't read; at the same time, Muriel did not make the effort to find a translation. This interaction is characteristic of their relationship, reflecting their inability to connect with one another. This disconnect further exacerbates Seymour's despair, probably influencing him to stage his suicide over Muriel as she sleeps.
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Allusions
Explanation and Analysis—"Little Black Sambo":
In her conversation with Seymour, Sybil asks if he has read The Story of Little Black Sambo, alluding to a popular children's book published in 1899 by Helen Bannerman:
"Did you read 'Little Black Sambo'?" she said.
"It's very funny you ask me that," he said. "It so happens I just finished reading it last night." He reached down and took back Sybil's hand. "What did you think of it?" he asked her.
"Did the tigers run all around that tree?"
"I thought they'd never stop. I never saw so many tigers."
"There were only six," Sybil said.
"Only six!" said the young man. "Do you call that only?"
Of course, Seymour most likely didn't finish reading The Story of Little Black Sambo the night before, but he pretends to have done so as a way of engaging with Sybil and interacting with her as a peer of sorts. Likewise, when Sybil says abruptly that she likes to chew candles, Seymour replies without missing a beat: "Who doesn't?" Seymour wants to see the world like Sybil. Sybil, for all her youth, has some skepticism regarding her wonderful companion. To test that Seymour has actually read the book, she quizzes him on its events. Seymour replies as if he were actually in the book and witnessing what happened: "I never saw so many tigers," he says. His lie about seeing the six tigers is mirrored by Sybil's later declaration that she has seen a bananafish with six bananas in its mouth. In both cases, the characters embrace fictional worlds—the difference, of course, is that Sybil does this because she is an imaginative child while Seymour does it as a means of escape.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Wasteland:
While talking to Sybil, Seymour alludes to a "The Wasteland," a famous poem by the Modernist poet T. S. Eliot. He does this in passing, saying:
"Ah, Sharon Lipschutz," said the young man. "How that name comes up. Mixing memory and desire."
The line he quotes appears at the beginning of the poem's first segment, "The Burial of the Dead":
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
The poem reflects a sense of deep despair and disillusionment. Spring is conventionally associated with youth, innocence, and rebirth, but Eliot subverts this by calling April "cruel[]." The mixture of the old and the new—flowers blooming from dead soil—is something dark and sinister. Likewise, there is something sinister in the juxtaposition of Sybil's youth and innocence and Seymour's cynicism and weariness. What's more, the fact that Seymour makes a reference related to "desire" is rather disconcerting, considering the fact that he's talking about a three-year-old girl. This allusion thus unsettles what might otherwise be seen as Seymour's endearing connection to children, forcing readers to wonder about the nature of his ties with these young people.
To that end, Seymour always has the advantage of being older and thus smarter than her. Seymour makes overtures (like kissing her feet, perhaps) and references that Sybil couldn't possibly hope to catch. Seymour clearly enjoys Sybil's company, and is able to connect with her better than with Muriel, for instance, but a layer of their conversation is still private to him and obscure to Sybil. This penchant for obscurity, the constant private joke with himself, is a key symptom of Seymour's isolation.
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