Understanding the Existential Crisis – J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories
Student’s name:
For the story, identify characters and their crises, citing textual examples to support your conclusions.
Short Story Title: “For Esme—With Love and Squalor”
1. List and describe the characters.
2. Fill out the chart below, identifying the main character’s crisis and its causes. Give two textual examples to
illustrate each element of the crisis.
Aspect of the Crisis
1.
Textual Examples
(Type quotation carefully and cite page number.)
Example 1A:
Example 1B:
2.
Example 2A:
Example 2B:
3.
Example 3A:
Example 3B:
Fit the narrator’s crisis into the “A-word” structure of existential philosophy:
1. Absurd
2. Alienation/Anxiety/Anguish/Angst/Alone
3. Aware/Acknowledge
4. Act/Ability to Say No
5. Anti-Hero
6. All (solidarity)