“The Laughing Man” is one of the stories we get in Nine
Stories by J.D. Salinger that is very much a traditional story. In this short
story, two stories were really being told. One was about the Chief and his life
and the other was the tale of the Laughing Man. One of the things that was
unique was the sense of confusion that both of the stories presented. The
limited knowledge of the narrator adds to the confusion.
One of the things we are left pondering by the end of the
stories is what happens between the Chief and Mary Hudson. A popular belief is
that their relationship ended because of Mary’s possible pregnancy, a major
hint to this being that Mary is sandwiched between two women with baby
carriages at the last baseball game we see her. A few of my personal theories
are that Mary is in fact pregnant but is unsure of if it is the Chief’s or the “dentist”
that she visits quite frequently and that Mary might be too young to have a
baby
Another thing that we are left wondering by the end of the
story is why the Chief decided to kill off the Laughing Man. As the story
showed, it was possible that the Laughing Man could have survived, the Laughing
Man decided to kill himself. For me, this happened because the Laughing Man is a
story in which the Chief himself plays a role in deciding the fate of all the
characters. Because of this, I think it is clear that the Chief buts himself in
the story. I think that when the Chief was going through a hard time with Mary
and that the ending of the story is a result of all of the emotions that he was
feeling at that moment. I think that the relationship between the Chief and
Mary Hudson is similar to the relationship between Black Wing and the Laughing
Man. I saw the death of the Laughing Man as a response to the murder of Black Wing
as a symbol of what the Chief was feeling when his relationship with Mary
Hudson ended.
What do you think? What do you think happened between the
Chief and Mary Hudson? Why do you think that the Chief decided to kill the
Laughing Man?
I also think that his decision to end the Laughing Man story is a result of his break up. We see throughout the story that the events in the Laughing Man almost seem to reflect the Chief's emotions and thus when the Chief is dealing with a hard breakup, his hopelessness may have lead him to kill off the Laughing Man.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the story of the Laughing Man paralleled The Chief's life. We see that mostly, the story is happy, showing a man overcoming a huge obstacle to have a great life. But when The Chief's own life beings to crumble, that's when the Laughing Man's life does too. I definitely don't think it's a coincidence that The Chief killed the Laughing Man right after he and Mary Hudson (presumably) break up.
ReplyDeleteThe effect that the Laughing Man's sudden death has on the boys is interesting as well, and may give us some hints as to the symbolism -- as we mentioned in class, the Laughing Man's story had become such an integral part of the boys' childhoods, and the sudden ending to the story corresponded with a feeling of disillusionment, a sense of their childhoods coming to an end. The narrator had been observing the relationship between Mary and the Chief, at an age where he doesn't understand the complexities of an adult relationship, and when the two adults break up, it's as though the narrator has come to an unspoken realization. He doesn't fully understand yet, but he now realizes that adult relationships aren't all peaches and cream, just as not all stories (i.e., the Laughing Man's story) have happy endings.
ReplyDeleteAmong other things, the sudden ending to the Laughing Man story serves as the young narrator's rough introduction to the concept of death--he experiences the LM's death as a real thing, and the ending of the story shows him deeply traumatized by the story's ending. The fictional character was experienced by him and his friends as real, in the sense that there was always another installment coming. Salinger shows him to be stunned with the realization that nothing lasts forever, even a beloved serial story and fictional character. In a sense, it doesn't matter "why" the Chief ended the story here (just as there isn't a "why" in response to a real death); he has reasons, which the narrator and his friends are unable to interpret or imagine. But the *effect* of that ending is traumatic to the narrator, and he grieves.
ReplyDelete