Ankles: Are they connected to war?

           While reading through the first three stories written by J.D. Salinger in his story collection, I couldn’t help but notice the constant mention of ankles. In Bananafish, Seymour is clearly obsessed with ankles, as he both grabs Sybil’s ankles a number of times, and also calls out the lady in the elevator for supposedly looking at his ankles. In Uncle Wiggily, the name itself refers to the ankle of Eloise when she fell and twisted her ankle. The name “Uncle Wiggily” was given to her ankle by Walt, her lover at the time. Lastly, in War with the Eskimos, while Ginnie is talking to Frederick, she notices him scratching multiple parts of his body. However, he specifically scratches his ankle multiple times, including when they were talking about Dick Heffner, the Lieutenant in the Navy that Ginnie’s sister was marrying.

            In fact, while writing this blog post, I’ve come to realize that all of these ankle situations tie back to the war as well. Seymour of course was in a war, therefore his connection with ankles. Walt, the lover of Eloise who gave the nickname “Uncle Wiggily” to her ankle ended up dying in the war. And Dick Heffner himself was a Lieutenant in the navy, and just as he is brought up, and ankle is too.