The Stranger by J. D. Salinger. Short summary

5 seconds

Babe and his little sister went to see Vincent’s dead ex-girlfriend. The Army man told her how Vincent died and gave her his verse. On leaving the house, he felt he had been spared the front-line syndrome.

1 minute

Babe is back from the front. Together with his sister Maggie, he went to New York City for a walk. But he decided to drop in on his dead comrade Vincent’s girlfriend (a character in the Caulfield family story series). Vincent’s girlfriend was already married and lived in downtown New York City in a rich but uncomfortable apartment.

Babe came for a reason. He felt he had to dispel the civilian romantic myth of the beautiful war. Vincent didn’t die smoking a cigarette before he died and saying something clever to say goodbye. He was hardly conscious of mortar fire.

But Vincent’s girlfriend seemed far from believing the myth. She sat there crying.

Babe handed her a verse Vincent had written for her. He asked her why they had broken up. She said that Vincent had left her after his younger brother Kenneth died.

Outside, Babe saw his little sister galloping, and the front man’s anger at the careless civilians let him go.