The Hang Of It

"The Hang of It" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, first published in the July 12, 1941 issue of Collier's magazine.

Plot

The story is a work of commercial tale about a soldier who just can't seem to get "the hang of it". It was reprinted in the 1942 and 1943 editions of the Kit Book for Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines by Consolidated Book Publishers, Inc.

Publication History

Salinger wrote “The Hang of It” shortly before the United States entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941.

Discerning the “popular appetite for positive short stories about the military,” Salinger abandoned any pretense at providing “psychological depth” and crafted an O. Henry-like tale with broad appeal. “The Hang of It” was published by Collier's on July 12, 1941, show-cased in an illustrated single-page format in small typeface. Salinger thought highly of “The Hang of It” and was deeply gratified when Collier’s published the work, considering it a milestone in his early professional career.

The story was selected for inclusion in the US Army’s 1942 and 1943 editions of Kit Book for Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, issued to servicemen as illustrated literary entertainment.
In 1943, Salinger’s publications in literary journals, including “The Hang of It,'' was brought to the attention of his superior officers. He was immediately assigned to the Air Force Service Command’s Public Relations Department in 1943 in Dayton, Ohio. While working in war-time public relations for the military, Salinger was screened and tapped to serve as a noncommissioned officer in the CIC. Proficient in German and French, he served as an interrogator of captured German soldiers and officers.

Biographer Kenneth Slawenski speculates, based on correspondence between Ned Bradford, editor-in-chief at Little, Brown and Company publishers and Salinger, that the author considered authorizing a volume of World War II-related stories, including his 1941 “The Hang of It.”

Critical Assessment

Slawenski dismisses this early effort, describing “The Hang of It” as “lacking in quality but easily sold to popular magazines.” Calling the story “a brief, sentimental failure” John Wenke reports that “The Hang of It” and “Personal Notes of an Infantryman” qualify only as “patriotic bromides in prose that are resolved in cute-to-sickening surprise endings.” Remarking upon the “glib” handling of the narrative and its “cloying” ending, literary critic John Wenke adds this:

Indeed, the story contrasts sharply with Salinger’s compassionate treatment of WWII experiences of American G.I.s, in particular his “Soft-Boiled Sergeant” (1944), originally titled “Death of a Dogface.”Wenke, 1991 p. 16

Footnotes

Sources

* Shields, David and Salerno, Shane. 2013. Salinger. Simon & Schuster, New York.
*Slawenski, Kenneth. 2010. J. D. Salinger: A Life. Random House, New York.
*Wenke, John. 1991. J. D. Salinger: A Study of the Short Fiction. Twaynes Studies in Short Fiction, Gordon Weaver, General Editor. Twayne Publishers, New York.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hang of It, The
1941 short stories
Short stories by J. D. Salinger
Works originally published in Collier's