Fogarty: There's Something About Teddy

Corey Henry

Blue 4

Fogarty

There’s Something About Teddy

Young children are typically hyper, imaginative and carefree, often found running around and learning the alphabet and cursive; however, Teddy is an eccentric child with knowledge beyond his years. Teddy depicts a spiritually advanced soul according to Hindu beliefs which might be viewed as either a genius or a peculiar child in the Western culture. Teddy demonstrates that he has existential thoughts on seemingly ordinary, mundane things that others could care less about. He interacts with other characters in the story which shows his higher level of understanding, and Teddy’s dialogue, ideas of the world and mannerisms indicate that he is on another spiritual level than other characters

In his journal, we see how he is preparing to take care of his dharma through helping others and moving beyond his ego. For example, he writes, “find daddy’s army dog tags and wear them whenever possible. It won’t kill you and he will like it.” and, “Be nicer to librarian.” which provides evidence that he is working towards achieving his duty through both social and individual forms of dharma as he is doing what is right for the sake of it being right. (Salinger 75) As Teddy finishes writing, Bob Nicholson drifts towards him, being somewhat of a fan and very interested in the young boy. The further into their insightful discussion, Teddy’s thoughts unfold through his speech and mannerisms towards Nicholson. In one part of their discussion, they discuss emotions and Teddy finds them useless in the sense that they are unneeded on the path to moksha because, in the end, everyone reaches the same summit as everyone else and emotions are just distractions along the way. Nicholson also questions Teddy’s love for his parents to which Teddy says he has a strong affinity for them and that “we’re all part of each other’s harmony and everything” (Salinger 77) meaning that everyone is essentially a part of God and their souls, or Atmans, are just finding their way back to God, Brahman. Further into the discussion, Teddy is questioned on the information he gathered through meditation and he puts it simply as, “I was just a person making very nice spiritual advancement.” (Salinger 78) He further goes onto explaining how he met a woman who told him to stop meditating and brings up samsara and how if he never met the lady, he wouldn’t be who he is. It was all a part of his karma that got him to the point he is at. Lastly, Teddy calls Nicholson out on him being too ‘logical’ about everything. Teddy is likely to practice Jnana Yoga, the path of knowledge, which