User:Imaybeanorangepeel
Excerpts from J.D. Salinger's short story, Teddy
[edit]Whilst staring out a porthole of a cruise ship's cabin, Teddy muses aloud to his parents,
- "Someone just dumped a whole garbage can of orange peels out the window.... They float very nicely.... That's interesting.... I don't mean it's interesting that they float.... It's interesting that I know about them being there. If I hadn't seen them, then I wouldn't know they were there, and if I didn't know they were there, I wouldn't be able to say that they even exist.... Some of them are starting to sink now. In a few minutes, the only place they'll still be floating will be inside my mind. That's quite interesting, because if you look at it a certain way, that’s where they started floating in the first place. If I'd never been standing here at all, or if somebody'd come along and sort of chopped my head off right while I was –" (171-72) [1]
His monologue is interrupted by his parents. After listening for a few minutes, he decides to leave the cabin.
- Teddy lingered for a moment at the door, reflectively experimenting with the door handle, turning it slowly left and right. "After I go out this door, I may only exist in the minds of all my acquaintances," he said. "I may be an orange peel." (174)[2]