The Death of The Laughing Man

The story “The Laughing Man”, the fourth of nine short stories in Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger is about a man looking back a kind of day camp/club group that he participated in during his childhood, known as the Comanche Club.  They were led by John Gedsudski, a student at NYU, referred to as Chief by the kids.  Chief would take them to play baseball or football in the park on sunny days and take them to museums on rainy days.  On the bus Chief would tell the kids the stories of the Laughing Man, the criminal protagonist, known for his cunning, elusiveness, and his love for animals.  One day, Chief stops the bus on Fifth Avenue and a lady that Chief is obviously seeing gets on the bus.  The boys didn’t like that a girl was part of their all boys club, but they eventually get used to it.  Another day, the girl, Mary, doesn’t show up at the bus.  At the park, Chief and Mary have an exchange, but the narrator can’t hear what was being said though he does recall Mary saying, “Leave me alone” to chief and Mary crying.  Back on the bus, in the story, Laughing Man in severely injured by bullets from his enemy, Dufarge.  His Dwarf Omba  arrives with medical supplies.  Laughing Man asks where Black Wing, a timber wolf, who is Laughing Man’s best friend.  Omba reluctantly tells Laughing Man that Black Wing is dead and at that moment Laughing Man dies.

I think that the character the Laughing Man serves as a metaphor for Chief.  After Chief and Mary had a fight and most likely broke up, Chief abruptly kills off Black Wing, Laughing Man‘s best friend Laughing Man himself.  The kids on the bus were shocked when Laughing Man died because he was a beloved childhood, character who they looked up to much like how they looked up to Chief.  Black Wing serves as a metaphor for Mary and their relationship in general.  When Mary, this girl that Chief was obviously in love with, most likely breaks up with Chief, it was the equivalent to Black Wing dying to Laughing Man.  Once Laughing Man lost his best friend, he lost the will to go on and he died.  When Chief lost the girl that he was in love with, he didn’t actually die, but he was visibly unhappy and he did kill the children’s favorite character, Laughing Man and he did end the story that they loved.


I think that J.D. Salinger wants the reader to feel sad and shocked that Laughing Man died.  Salinger wants to show that there is sometimes more to a story than there seems.  The only thing children see is that their beloved hero and sort of a friend in the Laughing Man has just died.  However, I think that the death of Laughing Man was about Chief feeling bad after he just lost the woman he loved.  The stories of the Laughing Man  were not told just for fun like the children thought it was for, but it was more to show how Chief is feeling.  As their leader, Chief can't really show his emotions or weaknesses, because the kids just want to have fun.  Chief manages to show his emotions through these stories instead of coming straight out and telling the kids his feelings.