Salinger's Short Story Analysis

J. D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey is about a twenty-year-old college student named Franny, who is seeking spirituality in her life. She is a member of the intelligent Glass family, whose children struggle with conforming to society after appearing on the television quiz show called It’s a Wise Child. Salinger’s novel is composed of two sections. The first section, Franny, deals with Franny explaining to her boyfriend her distaste for the college environment. In the second section, Zooey, Franny discusses with her brother Zooey about feeling isolated from the people around her and finding spirituality in her life. In Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger, the main protagonist, Franny, undergoes a change in perspective as she tries to cope with her dissatisfaction with the world through her spiritual beliefs. In the beginning, Franny is experiencing a deterioration in mental health due to her severe judgemental attitude and harsh criticism of her college experience; with little thought, she turns to prayer in an attempt to resolve her difficulties, but her problems grow worse due to her lack of understanding of religion. Eventually, she comes to a greater understanding of her relationship with others as she realizes the genuine meaning of her spiritual beliefs through listening to Zooey’s consoling advice.

"Do not be mislead by what you see around you, or be influenced by what you see. You live a world which is a playground of illusion, full of false paths, false values and false ideals. But you are not part of that world" (Sai Baba). A world of illusion is an alluring, yet perilous place to enter. It can deceive the mind only to cause damage and distress. Holden Caulfield's life has led to. an atrophy through his struggle of conceiving illusions as reality. In J.D. Salinger's novel, "The Catcher in the Rye", Holden Caulfield battles the constant reminder of his brother, Allie's, death while he roams the streets of New York. Preceding his futile adventures, he is expelled from his fourth school, Pencey Prep. During his extent at

All though it has taken a lot to build up the initial break down, the trigger was two books. “She got both books out of Seymour and Buddy’s old room” (101) The books over look a Pilgrim going on a spiritual journey, but it is not about the context of the books as to where she found them. “I want to talk to Seymour” (150) Franny says after her brother, Zooey offers to contact their brother Buddy. Through all of the religions in the pilgrim book it is about Franny missing her brother who she loves, and wanting to connect with him somehow through this

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is portrayed as a young, troubled individual. He tells us his story from the mental institution where he is currently residing. Holden is a 16 year old going through many different adolescent changes. He is expelled from his prep school for flunking too many subjects. He drinks, smokes, sees a prostitute, is punched by her pimp, goes on dates, spends a great deal of time in the park, and really does not do a great deal else. Holden is a very hard person to figure out and analyze. Throughout the whole book, Holden constantly changes his mind about things and has various conflicting thoughts. The experiences that Holden goes through illustrate the divide between adults and

Have you ever read a novel in which a character is talked about often but never appears or appears but for a brief moment? At times you may think nothing of that character, you could assume they add nothing to the context of the novel and are placed to fill up a couple pages, but on the contrary. In some works of literature a character who does not appear at all can have a significance presence. In J.D Salinger’s novel “ The Catcher in the Rye”Holden the main character’s brother, Allie never appears but is mentioned multiple times. The lack of Allies presence is vital to the key aspects of Salinger’s novel. Often this lack of presence from a character is done on purpose. It can be done to signify something, make the novel multi dimensional or to enhance the writing. Ally’s absence affects the main character, the theme of the book, and a development of characters.

Despite the appealing message of the Fat Lady, there are a multitude of flaws that prevent the advice from operating completely. Zooey Glass’s words of wisdom to Franny Glass, regarding “doing it for the Fat Lady”, appear to be satisfying, however, it is quite a difficult task because of the human need for recognition which turns into greed for praise, the power of society to force people to conform, and it is very challenging to accept the many flaws in society. The advice passed down from Seymour, “doing it for the Fat Lady”, is first countered by the basic human desire for recognition, which in many instances transforms into greed for praise. Franny confronts the issue of approval throughout the text, first in her conversation with Lane.

Written in 1951, J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye continues to be a popular book amongst Americans. Although The Catcher in the Rye has been banned in many public school settings in the United States it continues to stay atop some of the greatest books of all time lists. Whether people are in their teens or in their fifties they find themselves drawn to Holden Caulfield. At some point in their life they could relate to a sense of alienation, caused by money and wealth. Humans are wired to be jealous and want what others have. Holden Caulfield has the opposite problem, he has money and wealth which he inherited from his hard working parents. However, he himself is not motivated to work hard, graduate prep school and earn his own wealth. Instead he despises hard working students at the many prep schools he drops out of. Holden also has a big number of family complications. An area to explore is how wealth can contribute to feelings of alienation and despair. Holden Caulfield has a complex relationship with money, not wanting to associate from it, but benefiting from it. A further look into the 1950’s may give an insight into the troubled mind of Holden Caulfield.

In J.D. Salinger’s “Nine Stories”, there are two stories that indicate a death, and, remarkably, these two short stories are what begin and end this captivating piece of literature. The first story is called “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and introduces a man who has been through the hell of World War II, which allows him to see things from a different perspective. The latter is called “Teddy” and revolves around a young, ingenious boy that seems to have a speculative mindset and very deep insight into life. In both stories the reader is introduced to a “genius”, but the geniuses, with all the potentials at hand, end up going mad and killing themselves. However, this proves to be Salinger’s point. It demonstrates a fine line that

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has been pronounced a literary classic for its atypical portrayal of adolescence, to effectively convey the protagonist’s alienation and confusion. The introduction of The Catcher in the Rye is underpinned by disorder and confusion through a stream-of-consciousness narration, which digresses from one subject to another. Consequently, Holden’s multitudinous thoughts and feelings appear to lack a cohesive pattern. Additionally, Holden’s prevalent ascription of other students as “phony” (Salinger, p.3) alludes to his alienation and isolation as a form of self-protection; he rejects those he does not understand. Furthermore, the vocabulary encapsulates typical adolescence dialect of the 1940s, and resultantly, alienates contemporary reader. This is typified through Holden’s use of colloquial speech, in particular, his exclamation “that killed me” (Salinger, p.42) to express his amusement. Therefore, the introduction of Holden’s disjointed monologue in The Catcher in the Rye foreshadows Salinger’s unique interpretation of adolescence.

It is the consensus of most critics that Seymour Glass is the most important character and the leader of the Glass family. This is a point that is obvious from the stories that Salinger has written about the Glass family. Seymour is looked up to and revered by all the children in the family and is his mothers “favorite, most intricately calibrated, her kindest son”(Franny 89). When catastrophe strikes in Franny and Zooey, the only person Franny wants to talk to is Seymour. Why is Seymour the most important person in the Glass family?

Jerome David Salinger, one of the most renown authors of the twentieth century. Salinger’s short stories “Nine Stories” was written after the WWII from the perspective of the war veterans. He successfully manages to create nine different short stories that all carry a theme of innocence. Meanwhile, Salinger expresses both this theme and his mysterious style of writing. Innocence is demonstrated in short stories, such as “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, “Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut”, “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor”. The appearance of children throughout the variety of short stories supports this innocence of a theme.

During the 1950’s, America was prospering after the second World War. According to History.com, “The United States was the world’s strongest military power. Its economy was booming, and the fruits of this prosperity–new cars, suburban houses and other consumer goods–were available to more people than ever before” (History.com Staff). More jobs were becoming available, decreasing the unemployment rate. Despite having all the success, America faced many problems as a country. One of the most popular novels of the time, The Cather In The Rye written by JD Salinger, discussed the flaws in the society Americans had failed to realize. The book is about a journey of a teen named Holden Caufield who was expelled from his school for failing most of his courses. He leaves to New York early but waits at a hotel until the winter break, hoping his parents will not get as angry as they would. During his time in New York, he drinks alcohol heavily to soothe his depression. Later, he was sent to a mental institution to treat his depression and as a therapy, Holden writes about his adventure in New York. Throughout the novel, J.D. Salinger criticized many aspects of American Society specifically conformity and the oppression of teenage freedom in the 1950’s.

When Zooey goes to Seymour and Buddy’s room he reads the quotes on the bulletin board of favorite books. In this room there are many quotes from the spiritual classics the children thrived on. Books of literature and spirituality become a metaphor for the higher life of imagination and seeking that the children shared. Zooey claims that Franny did not get The Way of a Pilgrim from the library, but from Seymour’s desk. This makes Franny upset because these books containing a beautiful world that sustained her and her siblings at home are destroyed in college by academic analysis. The telephone on Buddy’s desk that belonged to

In the novel, Franny and Zooey by J.D Salinger, it is overwhelmed with many themes; the novel also reveals an important message on finding ones self and dealing with the difficulties and struggles of life; these themes consist of religion, egos, and culture. Franny Glass struggles with the phoniness and egotism that spreads through society. She longs to escape her problems and decides to get away from it by withdrawing into spirituality religious values through the Jesus Prayer. She soon realizes the down fall of her solution and through her pains and challenges; she learns how to deal with social unpleasantness. Franny learns that she needs to shed her egotism and act unselfishly. The novel also has many different symbols with

Many novels cannot be fully understood and appreciated if only read for face value, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is no exception. The abundant use of symbolism in Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is of such significance that it “proclaims itself in the very title of the novel” (Trowbridge par. 1). If the symbolism in this novel is studied closely, there should be no astonishment in learning that The Catcher in the Rye took approximately ten years to write and was originally twice its present length. J.D. Salinger uses copious amounts