J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [64]
Mattie begins her letter by telling Babe that she knows he is in France. She continues by saying that there are few boys now at the beach and that Lester Brogan was killed in the Pacific. Mr. and Mrs. Brogan still go to the beach, she says, but now they sit in silence, never going into the water. Mattie then tells the strange tale of the death of Mr. Ollinger, portraying death as an unseen hand blindly snatching life away from among them. She closes her letter with the wish that Babe will come home soon. It is a predictable statement but one that rejuvenates him. After reading the letter he lifts himself up from the foxhole and shouts, “I’m over here!” to the nearest soldier. Then he whispers to himself, “Please come home soon” and falls blissfully asleep.
The message of this story hinges upon two poems that Babe longs to hear above all else. One is “The Lamb” by William Blake, and the other is “Chartless” by Emily Dickinson. These poems hold similar messages. When read together, they add a powerful statement to this story.
The Lamb
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Does thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed,
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing woolly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Does thou know who made thee?
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee.
He is called by thy name,
For He calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and he is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Chartless
I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.
I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in Heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.
The first of many stories in which Salinger equates poetry with spirituality, “A Boy in France” represents a major stage in Salinger’s spiritual journey. In “The Magic Foxhole,” the scene with the chaplain appears to question the existence of God or at least the participation of God in human lives. In “A Boy in France,” the existence of God is affirmed, and it is here that Salinger acknowledges his spiritual quest.
That Salinger had a religious experience at this time should come as little surprise. The front lines of battle are often the scene of spiritual awakenings. However, in 1944, his perception of God was still an abstract one built upon ideas already traveled. In “Last Day of the Last Furlough,” Babe decided that life was worth living and fighting for because it held beauty. In “France,” he realized that it was beauty through which God began to reveal Himself. Within the tomb of his foxhole, Babe sees no mystical apparition, nor is he engulfed by a heavenly light. But he does see God, if only through the beauty of his little sister’s innocence, and, upon feeling his own connection with it, knows once again that he is alive.
Fourteen years after Salinger’s descent into Hürtgen, he recalled a haiku written by the nineteenth-century Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa:
“The Peony is this big!”
The child’s arms
Outstretched
It was enough, maintained Salinger, that Issa had drawn attention to the peony. The remaining obligation lay in the hands of the reader. “Whether we go to see his fat-faced peony for ourselves is another matter,” he wrote. An effort is required because the poet “doesn’t police us.”33
Salinger’s reference to Issa’s haiku was drawn in correlation to his own writings. The essence of “A Boy in France” must be felt by the heart to be fully experienced, just as only the heart can truly see the peony. The poetry and prose of “A Boy in France” contain