This article offers a comparative close reading of Ivan Bunin’s and J. D. Salinger’s short fiction. It explores the depiction of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide in literature. We propose that, while these authors share a similar cultural backdrop (a postbellum world), narrative structures (plot), and sociological interests (suicide), each of them imbues their stories with contrasting denouements –the reflection of two different spiritual moments of the 20thCentury. By the same token, we suggest that while Bunin shows a legible world, full of meaning, Salinger, in turn, depicts a world that has been emptied of it by the horrors of war.