This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise
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| "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by J. D. Salinger | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Esquire |
| Publication date | October 1945 |
"This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise" is an uncollected work of short fiction by J. D. Salinger which appeared in the October 1945 issue of Esquire.[1][2] The story was published in the 1958 anthology The Armchair Esquire, edited by Arnold Gingrich and L. Rust Hills.
"This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise" is the seventh of Salinger's nine works dealing with members of the Caulfield family.[3]
The story describes Vincent Caulfield's experience at a Georgia boot camp before embarking for the war.[4] He is upset because his brother Holden (as described in "Last Day of the Last Furlough") is missing in action, and is unable to accept the possibility Holden may be dead.[5][6]
Background
Though none of Salinger's correspondence reveals the precise evolution of the story, "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise" was completed in late 1944 when Salinger was serving with US Army units fighting the Schnee Eifel and Hürtgen Forest. Biographer Kenneth Slawenski speculates on how this reality may have affected Salinger's handling of the story:
Grappling to deal with death, Salinger casts himself as Vincent Caulfield, who, mirroring his creator, remained torn between repressing his feelings and admitting the reality in which he was embroiled.[7]
