For Esmé with Love and Squalor Themes

Youth is kind of the guiding light of "For Esmé – With Love and Squalor" – the war-scarred protagonist is brought back to life by a letter from a young friend of his, whose strengt...

War is bad. If you didn't already know this, just read "For Esmé – With Love and Squalor" to understand just how bad. Despite the fact that we don't see any of the stereotypical elements...

OK, this is the story of a grown man and a thirteen-year-old girl, so you might be alarmed to see "Love" as one of the themes. However, don't flip your wig – this isn't Lolita, and we're cert...

Any time you have a writer writing a story about a writer, you just know that literature is going to be a big deal. "For Esmé" is no different. While this story is, on one hand, about a soldie...

"For Esmé" plays upon a common theme of war fiction, the idea of the American soldier abroad. The way people elsewhere (in this case, in England) view Americans is a central theme here. When l...