Understanding the Outsider

Paper Summary:

The paper describes how in "For Esme - With Love and Squalor" by J. D. Salinger, the narrator, Sergeant X, lives his life as an 'outsider' due to his intellectual awareness that renders him confusing and complicated to others. The paper discusses Sergeant X's encounter with a young girl who actually understood him and highlights how even for the most exceptionally misconceived misfit, there is inevitably someone who can connect with him.

From the Paper:

"There are people in this world that live outside of society; separated as loners, by their intellectual elitism, or anti-social preferences. The lives of these people do not coincide with those around them, as the majority favors ignorance and selfishness. These elite few, or "outsiders", are confined into a life where communication and human connection is a rare and unattended element. In the short story "For Esme - With Love and Squalor" by J. D. Salinger, the narrator Sergeant X lives his life on the outside. His intellectual awareness renders him confusing and complicated to others, and confines him outside the borders of society's vastly unexamined blissfulness, anchored in solitude. There is an exception though, an interjection comes into his life. He encounters a young girl with an "oddly radiant"(92) smile."

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