How to Give Advice People Won't Take & Other Similarities

In both "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" and "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", J.D. Salinger has a character who he never refers to by name, but rather reveals their name through the dialogue of his other characters.  They are also called "boy" and "girl", even though they are both presumably old enough to be considered man and woman. Franklin in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" is only referred to as "Selena's brother" until Eric arrives and asks Ginnie if she's seen him.  Franklin is also described as "the funniest-looking boy" even though we are told he is twenty-four (Salinger 63).  In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Muriel is continuously called girl by Salinger, and we only know her name because her mother says it.  We also find out that Muriel is married, which makes it strange that she should be referred to as "girl".  In both "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" and "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", there are characters who drop out of college.  Eloise and Mary Jane both dropped out during their sophomore year, and Franklin quit as well, though we are not told when.  Another connection between these two stories is a camel's-hair coat.  "Eloise turned up the collar on her camel's-hair coat," shows that Eloise had one in "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" and Eric comments on Ginnie's coat by saying "It's the first really good camel's-hair [he's] seen since the war," in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" (Salinger 27, 77).  "A Perfect Day for Bananfish" and "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" both have characters who try to help a friend or relative with their problem.  In "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", Eloise talks about her old boyfriend, Walt, even though she is currently married to Lew.  While Eloise is talking about how funny Walt was, Mary Jane says "Doesn't Lew have a sense of humor?" (Salinger 42) She is trying to convince Eloise that her current husband is a good man, even though Eloise does not seem to like him.  Muriel's mother from "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" tries to warn Muriel that her husband, Seymour, "may completely lose control of himself." (Salinger 9) Although Muriel ignores this, Seymour does end up killing himself at the end of the story.  One of the largest connections between all three stories is the time period. They are all focused around World War II in some way.  In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Seymour's PTSD is a major component of the story. In "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", Eloise loses her boyfriend to the war.  In "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", Franklin mentions that he could not be drafted for the army because he has a heart problem resulting from rheumatic fever during his childhood.  All three of the Salinger stories that we have read are connected in various different ways.