First Part Of Teddy And Nicholson's Conversation example essay topic

According to Teddy, the ten year old genius", Logic's the first thing you have to get rid" of". Teddy says this while explaining that logic can only cause trouble while thinking of every day subjects. Is Teddy, a young boy in post WWII education, using this idea of non-logic as form of post war America or present day America. Nicholson, a teacher of post WWII education, questions Teddy on his logics and reasons. They both differ on what is and what is not logic and reasoning.

Together they form a contrasting view of America and society and how it is today and how it was yester year. Salinger proposes this idea during a conversation between Teddy and Nicholson. While both Teddy and Nicholson are Salinger philosophers, their different logics and reasonings convey the ideas of post war America and present day America. By Salinger using two different philosophers in his story Teddy, he can convey two different views of two different thinking generations.

The first part of Teddy and Nicholson's conversation is that of emotions. While Teddy says "I wish I knew why people think it's so important to be emotional (186) " and goes on to say how he's parents think "don't think a person's human unless he thinks a lot of things are very sad or very annoying... he (Teddy's father) thinks I'm inhuman (186)". Nicholson replies with "I take it you have no emotions (186)". , and Teddy counter backs with "If I do, I don't remember when I saw I ever used them... I don't see what they " re good for (186)".

This tells the reader that already Teddy does think like an everyday 10-year-old boy of that era. This story takes place after WWII; America at that time was still highly emotional from the war and this boy is telling this adult that emotions really don't serve a purpose because they are not reliable enough to believe in. When Teddy says later on he does not love God "sentimentally" it is only because it is reliable because unless you truly do love something or someone one should mean it and not just say they do and depend on someone who "loves them" because it is the weakest part a person can offer someone else. When it comes to family, Teddy points out how only he's parents can truly love him only when they can change him into what they want him to be. Nicholson finds this all hard to understand because he his mind is set in the past idea with loving your family and especially God is required and no thought of not truly loving them for their amusement. This new way of looking at love is true full yet seems wrong.

The next part of their conversation is logic. The Teddy uses is a block of wood how people logics ends so soon. Nicholson tries to tell Teddy that a wood of block ends just there because it has length and width, however Teddy interjects with "The reason things seem to stop off somewhere is because that's only way most people know how to look at things (189) ". By saying this Teddy questions why do things end just because we are told so? With meditation, a new form of relaxation and thinking in the post war WW II, Teddy can stop those limitations and see things where people would usually see them stopping. This way can help Teddy be more at peace since he knows where truly everything and everyone ends.

The subject of dying only increases Teddy's ability to think ahead of the rest of post war society. Teddy knows that only thing that happens when one dies is that you leave your body for a better place. While he tells teachers of Religion and Philosophy this, he knows that they all afraid of death since they don't know what happens to them after they do. Teddy is at one with himself when it comes to both Religion and Philosophy, while most people of his time do not understand the connection between them both. "My gosh, everybody's done it thousands of time and thousands of time... they just don't remember it doesn't mean they didn't do it (193)". Why fear death when we all come back to earth and relive a different life?

Therefore people only really fear change and death is change. Nicholson's reasoning of this is that death is final and that this so called "change" could not possibly exist because he's old-fashioned logic is one that can not be changed..