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A Summary of the Story
"The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" is largely regarded as the finest of Salinger's unpublished works. While not having had the opportunity to revue all of the author's unpublished materials, it is hard to imagine a more important work among them.
A good amount of this story's interest stems from it's relationship to the Caulfield stories as a body of work, and certainly to The Catcher in the Rye as the primary work of that group. While continuing the themes of these stories, "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" is the basis of many of them, as it's events precede them in time.
Written by Vincent Caulfield as a self-cleansing reminiscence, this story goes far to explain the events which lead up to, and the messages contained in Salinger's later novel. In explanation, the character of Vincent Caulfield is certainly the same character that we will come to know as D.B. in Catcher. Likewise, the character of Kenneth Caulfield is the same character that Salinger will later choose to name Allie.
This is the last day in the life of Allie Caulfield.
This story takes place on Cape Cod. It is unclear whether the Caulfields are staying at their summer home or permanent residence. Vincent Caulfield, who narrates the story, is about eighteen or nineteen. Also in the house are his parents, who are actors, his brother Kenneth, who is twelve, and his sister Phoebe, who was born not long before the story takes place. Away at camp is Vincent's younger brother, Holden.
Vincent begins his narration with a description of his brother Kenneth. He paints a portrait of a thoughtful, sensitive, and intelligent boy so curious that his shoes turned up, as he was always bending down to investigate things on the ground. Vincent continues, describing his brother's red hair, explaining that it was so vibrant as to be seen by him at a great distance. He relates a time that he was playing golf and became aware of his brother watching him from far off.
Further description of Kenneth includes two of his great loves, literature and baseball. He marries the two by filling his lefty first-baseman's mitt with entries of poetry that he can read while in the field. Holden later discovers a quote by Browning on Kenneth's mitt, which Vincent relays to us:
"I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forebore, and bade me creep past."
While Kenneth's love and knowledge of baseball was extreme, he stopped going to games after witnessing Lou Gehrig strike out. He concentrated instead on Literature, which he felt he could better control. A voracious reader, he cared for both prose as well as poetry, reading great quantities of both.
One Saturday afternoon in July, Vincent, who is a struggling writer, comes down from his room onto the porch of the house where Kenneth is sitting and reading. In a somber mood, Vincent coaxes his younger brother away from his book to tell him the story that he himself has just written, titled "The Bowler".
"The Bowler" is a story of a man whose wife would not let him do anything. He couldn't listen to sports on the radio, or read cowboy magazines, or indulge any of his interests. The only thing that his wife would let him do was go bowling -once a week -on Wednesday night. So, every Wednesday for eight years the man takes his special bowling ball down from the closet and goes out. One day, the man dies. His wife faithfully visits his grave every Monday to place gladioli. One day she goes on a Wednesday. On her husband's grave she finds fresh violets. Calling over the caretaker, she inquires as to whom left the violets. The caretaker tells her that they were left by the same woman who leaves them every Wednesday, probably the dead man's wife. Infuriated, the woman goes home. That night, the neighbors hear the sound of crashing glass. The next morning they see a shiny, new-looking bowling ball sitting on the woman's lawn amidst a shower of broken window pane.
Kenneth's reaction to Vincent's story is not what Vincent anticipated. He is upset by the ending, accusing Vincent of taking revenge on the man. He begs Vincent to remove the part of the story where the woman throws out the bowling ball. Touched by his brother's sentimentality, Vincent tears up the story.
A child with "heart trouble", Kenneth is portrayed as a spontaneous boy determined to live every moment to the fullest. He convinces his brother to take him to a place called "Lassiter's" for fresh steamers. During the drive to Lassiter's, they have a conversation about Vincent's girlfriend, Helen Beebers. Kenneth tells Vincent that he ought to marry Helen as she has exceptional qualities. Among them is her tendency to play checkers without moving her kings from the back row.
He then asks Vincent about love for Phoebe and Holden. Kenneth says that while looking at his baby sister lying in her crib, he actually feels that he is her.
Once at Lassiter's, they meet a a bald man seated at another table, who is taken by Kenneth and his quick wit. Then Lassiter, the owner, approaches the table. After cordialities, Lassister asks Vincent where Holden is, calling Holden "the crazy one". Kenneth gets extremely upset by this and wants to leave. Lassiter tries to backtrack and Kenneth decides to let the episode go, warning Lassiter to be his age.
By some instinct, Vincent feels that they both want to drive the five miles to a certain spot on the beach that Holden has christened "The Wise Guy Rock". This is a big, flat slab of rock on the ocean and accessed by a series of jumps from stone to stone. On the rock, they survey the ocean, which Vincent describes as being calm. There, Kenneth reads a letter that he received that day from Holden, who is away at camp.
Holden's letter is very funny and riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes that neither brother would find themselves guilty of. In it, Holden complains about camp which he says "stinks" and is full of rats. Holden is looking forward to coming home. In the camp dining room, everybody has to sing a song. A Mr. Grover, who thinks he is a hot singer, tried to make Holden sing with him but Holden would not. He would have, but he doesn't like Mr. Grover because he is a rat. Mrs. Grover too. They smile at you but are very mean whenever they get the chance. Because Holden refuses to sing in the dining room, he is being ostracized as punishment. Now, none of the rats are allowed to speak to him. A boy from Tennessee read the book of Corinthians to Holden and he likes it very much. He ends the letter by telling Kenneth he misses him and Vincent and asking what color Phoebe's hair turned out to be -red?
After reading the letter, Kenneth picks up a pebble, examining it for flaws. Emotionally, he laments out loud what will become of Holden. Using the episode of singing in the dining room as an example, he states that Holden cannot seem to compromise, -even if he knows that life will go smoother for him if he does.
Kenneth's attitude then changes, becoming triumphant. With a triumphant look on his face he tells his brother that if he were to die, he would still stick around.
Looking very happy about something, Kenneth decides to go for a swim. This is against Vincent's better judgment. The sky grows dark and the ocean grows violent. It is now full of bowling balls. Vincent begins to discourage his brother from going into the water, but allows him. Something inside of Vincent realizes that he should not stop Kenneth although he would like to. He, himself does not join him.
After his swim, as Kenneth is just about out of the water, he is struck down by a terrific wave.
Vincent scoops Kenneth's listless body up from the beach and frantically races him home, driving the first mile or so with the brakes on.
At home, sitting on the porch, is Holden with his suitcases. He clumsily tries to help Kenneth. The scene is a frenzy. They call the doctor who arrives shortly after their parents, who were away at rehearsals. There is a scene with a boy named Gweer, who is playing with the Caulfields, and represents the outsider in this story. Gweer asks what happened to Kenneth, whether it was his heart, and stating that Kenneth was just a kid. Vincent tells Holden that the ocean was full of bowling balls.
Kenneth Caulfied died at ten after eight that night.
The story ends with Vincent's explaining to the reader his motivation for relaying it. In the telling, he seeks to put his brother Kenneth to rest. Kenneth has been with both himself and Holden since his death. Vincent feels that he should no longer be hanging around.
Further Comments on this Story
A handful of thoughts and comparisons about "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" can be found Here.
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