Girl without butt in the damned forty-first

The action takes place during the Second World War . A young girl from Pennsylvania, Barbara, travels with her future mother-in-law to Mrs. Odenhern.

In one of the tourist cities where they stayed, a young man named Ray Kinsella meets Barbara. Ray invites the girl to ride a boat, where a conversation begins between young people and two tourists, the elderly spouses Mr. and Mrs. Woodruff. After a boat trip, Ray leads everyone to a “typical tourist attraction” called “Viva Havana”. The guy invites Barbara to a dance, during which he says that he recently graduated from college, and soon leaves to serve in the army. The girl in response says that her father died of intracerebral hemorrhage , and she lives with her aunt.

Closer to dawn, Ray and Barbara kiss on the deck , during which he notices that he has never been bothered to such an extent by the girl’s proximity. Despite the fact that Barbara has a bridegroom, Ray offers the girl to get married, trying to convince her that they are “made for each other” and “will be damn happy.” However, she gives evasive answers, indicating that they almost do not know each other. Barbara leaves, citing the fact that she had better go to sleep, leaving the hope that in the morning they might be able to see each other at a tennis match.

The girl returns to her room and informs Mrs. Odenhern that she does not want to get married. The woman suggests that Barbara was just tired, and reported the news without thinking anything; however, in the end, when Barbara was about to briefly go out onto the deck, Mrs. Odenhurn looked at her, and “her gaze said:“ Great. It's over. I can hardly restrain how happy I am. Now dispose of yourself at your discretion. Just do not disgrace and do not embarrass me. " The story ends during the scene of Barbara's walk on the ship. The author writes: "In this unsteady hour, life did not stop at all, but for Barbara there was nothing but the complex polyphonic sound of the first moments after childhood."

The image of Ray Kinsella, whose actions reflect the traumatic experience of the author’s fighting (in the plot he laments: “But the time is so lousy. With this damned war, the whole world is upside down”), was later considered by critics as a prototype of a character named Simor Glass in another story by Salinger, “ A good banana fish is caught ” ^[2] .

• Miller Jr., James E. JD Salinger - American Writers 51. - University of Minnesota Press, 1965.
• Salzman, Jack. New essays on the Catcher in the Rye. - Cambridge University Press, 1991. - ISBN 0-521-37442-1 .