Lack of Reality

Author's Note: This is a response to "Teddy" by J.D. Salinger. This was a tough piece to write about, as I was trying to focus on ideas that are a little over my head. This is what I came out with. Let me know what you think about the ending, I think it is a little too abrupt, but wasn't sure. I may have also fallen of the thesis a bit towards the end. I was trying to use a larger average vocabulary, not necessarily hard words, but words that match what I am really trying to say more effectively.

School by definition is an institution for educating children. The best thing a person can ever learn to do is to think, and develop their own ideas. This is exactly the behavior that is discouraged by schools. If you have thoughts, then you cannot be fully controlled, you cannot be another victim of the system. At school, as well as churches, people are being dehumanized. They are being taught to not think, to just do. If you do a certain activity, and are positive, prompt, polite and not profane, then you will have all you need going forward. You will be educated. This is exactly what they want us to believe. People are taught to swim inside of a swimming pool, while not a single person is tossed into the ocean and told to find a way out. This false reality is created around us, often without our knowledge. Rather than being gently nudged into the ocean, the reality, some find themselves dumped there, while others never have to face the reality, and never have any hardships in life.


Society is forcing us into a habitual routine, into the square dimensions of a pool, without our recognition. Mentioned a lot in this story were the cigarettes that people were smoking as Teddy passed them on the deck, the people who were sucking in chemicals, as suggested by society, in order to be happy. Even Mr. McArdle, Teddy's father, was a follower of this way. This is just another way to avoid facing reality. Almost everyone on the boat is sharing this habit. Once you have smoked a cigarette, it is near impossible to stop. A large majority of people who start smoking have this in mind when they start, but it isn’t important to them. If not smoking, everyone on the boat has a way of escaping reality, a habit of some sort. That is, everyone except one.  Teddy McArdle is the outlier of his family, and of the entire boat. While everyone else is off smoking cigarettes, or playing games, Teddy is the only one to be found writing in his journal. He is the only one developing thoughts, and embracing the reality of the world. This is the reason that so many people are not understanding of Teddy. Every time he is on to something they just cut him off, in disbelief of his thoughts.  This is the same reason for so many ideas in this world being shut down, and never coming to life. Everything that is insightful is not understood. People do not want to hear the truth, they would like to accept the falseness of their reality.

One of the great things in this story is the clear exaggeration of Teddy being unaccepted. He is constantly spoken over. This is a common practice with youth, and children, but oftentimes they are the lucky ones. They still have an imagination, they have not been turned into machines. Children are often able to see things more for what they are than adults. You see very different reactions from children compared to adults. Ignoring a person in need of help, beating an animal, there are many common practices that are ignored by humanity, but not by children. Kids are quick to be cut off, because no one wants to hear what they have to say. No one wants to see things for what they are, because in reality life and our daily practices are disturbing. They are disturbing, but accepted -- even suggested -- by society. Gradually, we encourage our children to “grow-up” and to just go with the flow. Most oblige, but the few that don’t are quickly shoved beneath the rug, classified as “mental.” We have all had our moments of being unaccepted, and being not welcome. This is something that most children feel very often, and Teddy feels almost all the time.

Teddy brings to the ship something that no one else has: a general understanding of the reality of the world, of the harshness. He has very genuine thoughts, and is quick to be shut up. He has been hauled around from place to place, with no one able to tell his parents what is wrong with him. This is because there is nothing wrong with him. The real problem is the parents. They are living a dysfunctional life, and pretending everything is okay. They always seem to be bickering, and can never agree on anything. That is anything accept Teddy. Mr and Mrs McArdle both seem to think that there is something wrong with their son. In reality, there is something wrong with society. This is what Teddy is trying to talk about, and every time he says something of intellect, he is denied. He is somewhere out in the ocean, in the reality of life, while everyone else is safe on the boat, with their swimming pool. If there isn’t a change in society, people like Teddy will cease to exist. While life gets worse, people will believe more and more, and not recognize this until it is too late.

This whole idea of protecting people from the truth is quite absurd. Institutions are putting them in a box, while still saying silly things like "think outside the box." You cannot possibly think out of a box you have been placed in. All of the nonsense of everyone being treated the same, and everything being "one size fits all," is another crazy phenomenon. The first place for change is the school, they should teach inner thoughts, rather than memorization of useless knowledge. All of these crazy ideas need to be put to an end, and reality needs to be faced, and greeted as a long lost friend.