Teddy Baffles

A seven-year-old child is in a math class learning simple addition and subtraction of single digit numbers. To logically approach this mathematical concept, the instructor employs the analogy of cookies; she asks, “if your mom left four cookies on the table, but your sister took two of the cookies, how many cookies can you eat?”. A smart and logical child raises his hand and says, “I can eat two cookies!” and the teacher rewards him with a lollipop for correctly answering the question. However, according to Salinger, that child does not deserve a lollipop because he only answered the question logically, not spiritually. Although logic is the primary approach people take to solve most problems, in “Teddy”, Salinger hi lights the conflict between …show more content…
At one point, Teddy asks Nicholson a question that baffles Nicholson: Teddy tells Nicholson to raise his hand and asks what he is raising. When Nicholson replies that he is raising his “arm”, Teddy says: "You know it's called an arm, but how do you know it is one? Do you have any proof that it’s an arm?”. Nicholson replies to this question logically, and this irritates Teddy as he quickly adds “logic’s the first thing you have to get rid of” to go beyond the “finite dimensions”. In addition, Teddy mentions how even those who teach religion or philosophy are “afraid to die”, when death is really just a gateway for a new birth. The discrepancy in Teddy’s attitude toward in comparison to general fear people have of death further suggests how Teddy can be less perturbed by death because he does not focus on the logicality of death, but on the posthumous spiritual development that comes with a new life. This call for action goes beyond the scope of the story as it connects with the Koan that is introduced in the epigraph. Throughout the book, it is probable that the readers would have tried to answer “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” by tediously analyzing the text. However, the closest that the audience can get to answering the question is when they reach “Teddy”, the last story of Salinger’s “Nine Stories”. The readers realize that they cannot know what the sound of one hand clapping is unless they try to approach the question from a spiritual point of view. All of the aforementioned claims made by Teddy serve to convey the idea that logic cannot be used to answer all questions. Salinger intentionally challenges the readers with a cryptic epigraph at the beginning of the novel, believing that the readers, just like Nicholson, will try to find the answer to the question by logically analyzing the stories. However, with his stories,