Teddy

            The story “Teddy” by J.D. Salinger ends with “an all-piercing, sustained scream--clearly coming from a small, female child” (Salinger 198). This scream is never explained and we never find out for sure what has happened to end the story. However, there are clues to a possible ending where Teddy is pushed into the empty pool by his sister and fractures his skull on the bottom of the pool, dying instantly. While there is no way to tell for sure whether this is the correct interpretation of the final scene, Teddy himself describes a similar scene and this is likely what Nicholson is thinking.

            Teddy explains to Nicholson that he thinks everyone takes death too seriously and that they shouldn’t be worried because they have all done it thousands of times before. He says,

“It's so silly," Teddy said again. "For example, I have a swimming lesson in about five minutes. I could go downstairs to the pool, and there might not be any water in it. This might be the day they change the water or something. What might happen, though, I might walk up to the edge of it, just to have a look at the bottom, for instance, and my sister might come up and sort of push me in. I could fracture my skull and die instantaneously." Teddy looked at Nicholson. "That could happen," he said. "My sister's only six, and she hasn't been a human being for very many lives, and she doesn't like me very much. That could happen, all right. What would be so tragic about it, though? What's there to be afraid of, I mean? I'd just be doing what I was supposed to do, that's all, wouldn't I?"

            Teddy lays out an elaborate scene of his own death and explains how it wouldn’t be tragic if it actually happened. Teddy has just explained to Nicholson that he could’ve told the professors when and how they were going to die, but hadn’t because he knew that it would upset them. Instead, he just told them some possibilities and times when they should be careful. Similarly, he never tells anyone when he is going to die, but says that he knows. This detailed description of how he could die could actually be his prediction of how he will die disguised in a way that will not alarm Nicholson. Teddy wants to tell Nicholson something but not actually reveal that he will probably die that day.

            In addition to this conversation with Nicholson, Teddy writes in his diary that “It will either happen today or February 14, 1955 when I am sixteen. It is ridiculous to mention even” (Salinger 182). This entry is not explained or elaborated in any way and we are not given any clues as to what it means. However, looking back, it is quite possible that this entry is referring to Teddy’s own death. We know from Teddy’s conversation with Nicholson that Teddy can predict his own death but that his prediction is not completely inevitable. We also know that he doesn’t think that death is very important. He only sees death as getting out of your body and moving on, something that everyone has done thousands of times even though they don’t remember it. This indifference to death could help explain his last sentence in the entry that it is ridiculous to mention.

            While we don’t know for sure what happens in the pool at the very end of the story. It is quite possible that Teddy has predicted his own death and that this prediction has come true. Teddy mentions this prediction in a way that doesn’t make it seem especially important or true. But Teddy also says that he doesn’t tell people fully what will happen because it will upset people. His journal entry saying that something will probably happen today and his detailed explanation to Nicholson make it seem like he does know that he is going to die and that he has most likely been pushed into the empty pool by his sister.