In my opinion, "Down at the Dinghy" was by far J. Salinger's best short story included in the novel, Nine Stories. This story is about a Jewish family from New York. They are on vacation at a nice, quaint, little lake. The tale evolves around a mother and her son. The son always attempts to run away and the mother simply cannot comprehend why he does such a thing. The relationship between the two is very, very weak. Until one day when the son is on his father's boat, the mother approaches him. He is fascinated by the fact that her key chain holds ten keys, far more than his father. She first pretends to throw them into the lake, and then gives them to him. He takes them, and then throws them into the lake. They walk back together and live happily ever after.
At first, this short story confused me to a certain extent. I couldn't understand why it just ended like that. It didn't really give any sort of closure and it left me hanging to believe where the duo went from there. I wasn't sure what made this drastic change in emotion between the two. Then, it hit me. The moral of this story is through all the darkness, enlightenment always emerges. The two had a very poor relationship, until one day, through an event so small such as this, the boy realized that his mother really did care about him. They came to grips with each other, just like every mother/son combination should. The mother tried so hard to get things to work out between the two, and it completely surprised me that an incident so small could bring out so much good. And thus emerges my opinion that this work of Salinger, was the best in the book.
YOUNG BOY NEARLY DROWNS IN HEROIC BAY RESCUE! Yesterday, mid afternoon, a young boy by the name of Harley Matt went missing in the Bay after embarking on a fishing trip with friends. It is believed that the dinghy that Harley was in capsized near Pelican reach. The rest of the boys got picked u...
Nine Stories Mysterious, confusing, thought provoking and inter-locking are a few words that explain J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories. The author throughout this book uses children to show the innocence and happiness of youth. The carefree world of children and the unhappy worlds of his adult ch...
Again, when the passengers have to leave the aircraft in emergency he, "of course", has more concern to get his wallet which has fallen down the isle, than to get out of the plane. ... While the stewardess in short, quick words tells him to "sit and jump", he thinks about the unstable state that the "elongated dinghies" are in, and slides down- "wheee!". ...
First, they were forced on their tiny dinghy because the commodore sunk, then they could not reach land even after they found it because the wave breaks were too strong and the boat too weak. Finally, the oiler, face down in the sand; just when he could finally step out of the reaches of the sea, it pulls him back for his undoing. ...
A challenging inferior diagonal line of a small group of people and their dinghies cross the main diagonal flow. ... In this painting two modestly dressed Italian ladies walk toward the painter arm in arm down a relatively bare hallway with two sources of light present: one behind the ladies leading to outside activity and one out of the picture between the painter and the ladies, casting light upon their feet. ... Whereas in Nut Gatherers, two little girls lie down and pick up nuts in a field. ... Two discontent ladies with no men walk down a hallway arm in arm. ...
Beckett laughs at the characters with the clownish hiccups, the pettiness of the insults "Seeing her now for the first time full length in the flesh I understood why he preferred me" and the absurdity of their aspirations "A little dinghy, on the river, I resting on my oars, they lolling on air-pillows in the stern sheets." ... The characters seem to wear down as "the laugh is cut short" the voices are lower and more breathless. ... In Footfalls, the central character, May, paces up and down rhythmically as she speaks with her bedridden mother. ...
After tucking Ramona in, Eloise went down stairs and woke up Maryjane, a childhood friend who was drunk and sleeping on the couch. " 'You remember our freshman year, and I had that brown and yellow dress I bought in Boise, and Miriam Ball told me nobody wore those kind of dresses in New York, and I cried all night?' ... She took it out and started to bring her arm down, to drop the sandwich into the street, but instead she put it back into her pocket"(Salinger 55). ...