‘The mall’s where all the kids go skating’ in New York,’ Sandra said very sociably to Mrs Snell. ‘The kids and all.’ This quote shows that Lionel is yearning for another childlike influence, this is why he flees to where he knows there are other children that he can communicate and socialise with.
The second most important or significant character is most definitely Boo Boo Tannenbaum, the mother of the Lionel, and a suspected Indian American, living in a stately home, as the maid would clearly suggest. Boo Boo is a character that has a great impact upon the reader for the way in which she is much organised in her handle the young boy even though he frequently runs away from home. Lionel has been running away from home since he has been of two and a half years of age. This is a very young age to start to run away from home. This is an age group in which children are still attempting to talk, or talk understandably. Even more walk with confidence, whereas this young child seems to be able to run away from home at the age of two and a half! This is an astonishing age at which to begin to run away from your home at, as at two and a half, children still do not have the courage to be alone, or remain in the dark. Also this is an incredible feat as described by her mother as he manages to run away to the park for the night. This is utterly strange for a child of that age, as I remember one as a child would never even ponder a trip into the park alone, especially at night. Although Boo Boo tries to cope with this fact as well as she can, as many times; repeatedly, she asks the child why in fact he decides to keep running away from home. He on the other hand makes up odd reasons such as a child called him ‘stinky,’ and promises to never run away again. The one trait thought that the mistress Boo Boo does possess (as did Seymour from previous novels), is the ability to communicate with children well. This is done by both the characters places themselves in a child’s shoes and attempting to act as one would. This is done with great success by both parties and I suspect a reason for this. In my view Boo Boo Tannenbaum is in fact the descendant of the same Seymour that we know and cherish from the other short stories of Salinger. I believe this due to the goggles that are stated in the novel to belong to a former, ‘Uncle Seymour.’ This is why I believe that Boo Boo may have actually picked up these child understandings from him. This is why she is able to play along with the games that Lionel creates but also manufactures her own individual ones. This can be seen as in ‘A perfect day for a Bananafish,’ when Seymour tells Sybil about Bananafish and she plays along. As does Boo Boo when she tells Lionel about the various Admiral Bugle calls, which entices Lionel to join in as well as the lure of the key chain that is similar to the one that his daddy keeps. In the end with these little diversions she manages to penetrate the dinghy that the boy has been sat in throughout the entire novel and then also manages to make him happy after he was in a gloomy and downhearted mood. She is able to do this by infiltrating his mind and acting just like a child would and doing and giving him all the things he likes such as playing games with him and buying him pickles. This is why the complex relationship between the mother and son is so intense due to all of these small factors in the play that just generate the plot into a much deeper and more solid text to understand, as are most of Salinger’s writings.
J.D.Salinger is most rightly one of the best writers of short stories in all known histories with his soft text yet intense plots that form writings that create such an intense impact upon the reader. This is why Salinger is so popular as a writer…due to his odd style of omnipotent writings.