Themes of Teddy
During the short story “Teddy” by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Teddy talks about his beliefs and thoughts about life and religion. He states many ideas that we believe to be morals or themes of “Teddy”. In the story, there are spiritual themes that Teddy describes. One theme from the story is when Teddy talks to Mr. Nicholson about logic being in the way of seeing things as they really are and he says “‘You know that apple Adam ate in the Garden of Eden, referred to in the Bible?’ he asked. ‘You know what was in it? Logic. Logic and intellectual stuff. That was all that was in it. So-this is my point-what you have to do is vomit it up if you want to see things as they really are. I mean if you vomit it up, then you won’t have any trouble with blocks of wood and stuff. You won’t see everything stopping off all the time. And you’ll know what your arm really is, if you’re interested.’” (Salinger 191). In this quote Teddy tells Mr. Nicholson that if he wants to see his life as it really is then he has to discard logic every once in a while and look at life in a spiritual way. Another theme expressed by Teddy in the story is when he talks to Mr. Nicholson about God. He says “I was six when I saw that everything was God.” (Salinger 189). This quote shows that Teddy is very spiritual and he tries to express to Mr. Nicholson that God is very important in life. He also tries influencing Mr. Nicholson to meditate and clear his mind to see things in a different perspective or how they really are. The last theme represented in the story is when Teddy tells Mr. Nicholson that it would not matter if he died. He then talks about the idea of reincarnation and how his different bodies might die, but his soul will never die. Overall, “Teddy” by J.D. Salinger teaches a lot of spiritual lessons that could really influence people to think of ideas in a more spiritual way and to see life in a different perspective.