Just Before the War with the Eskimos?

Question:

Just Before the War with the Eskimos?

in the end of the story what does the easter chick symbolize?

Outside the building, she started to walk west to Lexington to catch the bus. Between Third and Lexington, she reached into her coat pocket for her purse and found the sandwich half. She took it out and started to bring her arm down, to drop the sandwich into the street, but instead she put it back into her pocket. A few years before, it had taken her three days to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in the bottom of her wastebasket.

http://salinger.narod.ru/texts/ninestori...

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: It does seem to be the most amazing non-sequitur, doesn't it? And sawdust in the bottom of HER wastebasket suggests that she carelessly emptied an Easter gift wrapping into the basket without examining the parcel fully.

The Easter chick is normally a symbol of new beginnings ... new life. The story seems to imply that she is normally careless - discarding without taking a proper look. Franklin's gift of the sandwich (although unwanted) now takes on the symbol of a keepsake from someone for whom she has formed a liking. Likewise, her attitude to Selena has changed and she has formed a new appreciation of her. Perhaps this time she will not discard, or write off, without first looking and appreciating.

The three day wait to dispose of the dead Easter chick could symbolise her realisation of a discarded life, and her inability to accept responsibility for it. Or it could symbolise the three days from Good Friday to Easter Sunday when there was a resurrection. A new beginning.
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