"For Esmé with Love and Squalor" is one of the most well known and most loved stories by J. D. Salinger. It is an Army sergeant's retrospective of a meeting he had with a girl, Esmé, before he was sent into combat. The strange but loving relationship with Esmé helps him to endure the squalor of war. Lack of purity and innocence in the adult world, and love of childhood itself are the themes of the story.