Just Before the War with the Eskimos Summary
The short story, Just Before the War with the Eskimos, involves two teenage girls named Ginny and Selena. Ginny becomes angry at Selena because she feels as if Selena has been using her for money, and has not paid Ginny back. That being said, Ginny forces Selena to pay her back, and Selena reluctantly agrees to do so. The two travel back to Selena's apartment so that Selena can obtain the money. When in the home, Ginny ends up having conversations with Selena's disheveled brother, Franklin, and his well-kept friend, Eric. At the end of the story, Ginny allows Selena to keep her money, and does not force Selena to pay her back. Two key passages in this story are identified below:
1. "Outside the building, she started to walk west to Lexington to catch the bus. Between Third and Lexington, she reached into her coat pocket for her purse and found the sandwich half. She took it out and started to bring her arm down, to drop the sandwich into the street, but instead she put it back into her pocket. A few years before, it had taken her three days to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in the bottom of her wastebasket," (Salinger 55).
2. "' We're gonna fight the Eskimos next. Know that?' 'The who?' said Ginny. 'The Eskimos.... Open you ears, for Chrissake,'" (Salinger 48).
1. "Outside the building, she started to walk west to Lexington to catch the bus. Between Third and Lexington, she reached into her coat pocket for her purse and found the sandwich half. She took it out and started to bring her arm down, to drop the sandwich into the street, but instead she put it back into her pocket. A few years before, it had taken her three days to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in the bottom of her wastebasket," (Salinger 55).
2. "' We're gonna fight the Eskimos next. Know that?' 'The who?' said Ginny. 'The Eskimos.... Open you ears, for Chrissake,'" (Salinger 48).