Buddy’s importance in telling the story is to give the reader a different perspective. To Franny and Zooey’s biased way of seeing Franny’s reasons in following the Jesus prayer. Based on a reliable outsider’s perspective, Franny thinks the Jesus prayer will help her keeping calm and will give her a piece of Seymour. However, Zooey thinks Franny is only using the Jesus prayer to not have to deal with her problems. Zooey also thinks that if Franny is using the Jesus prayer she should really learn to understand it and do it for herself. Zooey’s biased way of seeing Franny’s reasons of using the Jesus prayer can be compared to a quote from “The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna” “sir we ought to teach the people that they are doing wrong in worshipping the images and pictures in the temple.that’s the way with you calcutta people you want to teach and preach you want to give millions when you are beggars yourselves...Do you think god does not know that he is being worshipped in the image?If a worshipper should make a mistake,do you think god will know his intent?”(Salinger). Meaning that god will know her intentions when praying,and will know she’s not praying for her but because she feels like she must do it in order to go on with her life and feel Seymor close.Zooey also suggests that if Franny is “going to say the Jesus prayer, she should at least say it to Jesus.And not to St.Francis and Seymour”(Salinger).Not only that but he suspects Franny’s “using the Jesus prayer
Jim Casy is the companion of the protagonist, Tom Joad, who desires to no longer be referred to as a preacher. Upon being invited to attend breakfast, “An’ it on’y got unholy when one mis’able little fella got the bit in his teeth an’ run off his own way... An’ then I got thinkin’ I don’t even know what I mean by holy... I can’t say grace like I use’ ta say.” (Steinbeck 81)
As we look at the characters within the story, they exemplify and convey the souls present in the bible. Jim Casy forms an obvious parallel with Jesus Christ, as a preacher who proves his dissatisfaction and unrest in his view of the establishment, and has abandoned his preaching style of his earlier life. Just as Jesus changed from the teaching of the Old Testament to promote greater self-discipline and a New Harmony. Tom Joad follows Casy initially, learning from him, until he is ready to take over the message himself after Jim Casy dies, which can be seen as a symbol of his disciple. Just like Christ followers carried on and shared the messages to form the idea that Jesus is still alive even after he died, Tom continued to teach the preachings of Casy once he dies a martyr 's death.Casy is also a prophet and Christ-like figure and we see this when he says: "You don 't know what you 're a doin, '" which reminds us of the
In chapters thirteen and fourteen, M. E. Kerr further proves that the combination of the taste of luxury offered by Skye and the newfound knowledge on fitting in with sophisticates supplied by Grandpa Trenker is a lethal one in regards to preserving the middle-class innocence of Buddy Boyle. The Boyle's first address Buddy's changes by writing them off as purely Skye's influence, like when Inge asserts "I told you that you were in over your head with that girl! It's that girl!" A few pages later, Buddy confirms the one thing a parent never wants to hear- that their child is unsatisfied with the way they were raised and what their parents provide for them. Buddy argues that "Your'e not raising me to think those things are important because you
He sells bibles and encourages people to buy at least one for their family. When he visits Mrs. Hopewell and finds out that she does not have a bible in the house, he tells her, “For a Christian, the word of God ought to be in every room in the house”. He continues, “I don’t want to go to college because I want to devote my life to Christian service. I got this heart condition and may not live long”. Moreover, Pointer is characterized as a very friendly man because he seems to like Joy when they meet for a date and calls her a sweet little girl whom he claims to have liked from the first day he saw her. Surprisingly, his real characters are later revealed in the story. In fact, he is neither a Christian nor a friendly man. He is a hypocrite, liar, swindler as well as a pretender. Firstly, he tells people that he is a believer while he is not. Secondly, during his date with Joy, she finds a bottle of whisky, a pack of condoms as well as obscene pictures in his suitcase. She gets so shocked and asks him, “Aren’t you just good country people? You are a Christian! You are just like them all- say one thing and do another. You are a perfect Christian, you are…..” Hulga had already put
By using passages from the Bible, the story provided a connection between God’s words and what an individual should do when life is full of conflicts. For example, Mary went through depression when her six year old daughter died because of a wound and didn’t know what to do. When she was offered a Bible, she happily opened it and “lightens on Psalm 27… [which said] ‘Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine Hearth, wait I say on the Lord’” (Rowlandson, pg 8).
In Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey’s The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, Jesus is argued to have a key role in the development of the Americas. The multiple people involved in the discovery and establishment of America and the lineage of people after them all had different understandings of Christ. The book explores the different ways these people experienced and viewed Christ’s physical form and his role in their lives. The many depictions of Jesus highlighted in this book reveal the story of race and religion in America. Different races and ethnicities claimed Christ as theirs, which caused great conflict in the history of American Religion. Jesus was often forced
For this reason, she often recites “the Jesus prayer.” Like the prayer’s namesake, Franny experiences guilt for anyone who is not completely righteous. Holden too feels responsible for the prevention of corruptness. His fantasy is to stand in a field and prevent children from falling off the edge, thus saving them from society’s imperfections. In addition, a major theme common to both books is the relationship of the protagonist to a sibling, and the healing that ensues as a result. For Franny, this healing comes about through her older brother, Zooey. In his efforts to help his sister, Zooey points out the flaws in Franny’s prayers. He shows that by becoming obsessed, Franny is acting as self-centered as the people against which she battles. For Holden, on the other hand, it is the innocence of Pheobe, contrary to the scornfulness of Zooey, which persuades Holden that there is in fact a balance between untainted aspects of society as well as less than perfect ones. In this way, Pheobe succeeds in changing Holden’s outlook. Rather than focusing solely on the negative facets of a situation, Holden learns to take all parts into account, and not to become discouraged.
Bitsey is trying to save David Gale’s life, and Sister Helen is trying to save Matthew Poncelet’s soul. She is trying to save is soul by bringing God into his life and having him read the bible more so he can become more of a holy person, and when he did bring that holiness into his life Sister Helen said to him “You are a son of God.” which meant a lot to Matthew. Throughout most of Matthew's life he was always a cold man and didn’t care much about anyone or anything, so Sister Helen tried to change that. This is so important and significant because is shows how heart warming and what good people Bitsy and Sister Helen are because they want to help both these people out even though they believe that they both have committed a crime.
It's so awesome to actually have a conversation with you. I've been doing some traveling myself, and like you, when I have old friends from Winthrop reach out to tell me thank you for praying for them or how they miss me taking them to church, it's really a blessing to hear.
It is this air of isolation that brings him together with his far-elder cousin, Miss Sook. “…neither of us had an ordinary outlook or background, and so it was inevitable, in our separate loneliness, that we should come to share a friendship apart” (243). This friendship with a woman fifty years his senior livens Buddy’s world as they spend all their time together, working in the garden, going fishing, and cooking up gigantic breakfasts. “…she was a child herself…she understood children, and understood me absolutely” (242). Buddy relates to her as an equal, creating a much needed friend that serves as an anchor in his childhood. As the primary figure in Buddy’s life, Miss Sook is able to teach him lessons about envy, vengeance, and empathy. She knows that Odd bullies Buddy, so she invites him to join their Thanksgiving dinner. Buddy is outraged and feels betrayed by his friend’s welcoming of an enemy. Immediately he views Odd in contempt as he watches him eye up one of his relatives while grabbing all the attention with his talented singing voice. “Odd was good, he could sing for sure, and the jealousy charging through me had enough power to electrocute a murderer.” (259). Overcome by this jealousy, Buddy immediately finds a way to find vengeance on Odd by accusing him of stealing a brooch from Miss Sook, which he was in fact guilty of. In the process of
The novella, “Zooey,” begins with the youngest male of the Glass family reading a letter that was written to him by Buddy, his elder brother. Buddy tells Zooey of a chance encounter that he had with a little girl at the butcher shop. In his conversation with the girl, Buddy discovers she has two boyfriends. He asks her for their names, to which she replies, “Bobby and Dorothy” (64). Her reply is what motivates Buddy to write his letter to Zooey. He reminds his younger brother, “that all legitimate religious study must lead to unlearning the differences, the illusory differences, between boys and girls, animals and stones, day and night, heat and cold” (67-68). In Buddy’s eyes, the little girl’s reply represents this ideology. She doesn’t recognize that there is a difference between Bobby and Dorothy; she just knows that they are her “boyfriends.” The butcher shop anecdote is
Franny’s response is a series of fragments and broken-off sentences that span two pages. Two concepts are communicated simultaneously. First, the content of Franny’s speech. Second, the back-last or second-guessing that goes on within Franny’s head. The first is the more well-known and more controversial of the two. Franny has been critiqued for so-called shallow concerns. John Updike famously referred to Franny as, “a pretty college girl passing though a plausible moment of disgust” in his New York Times review of Franny and Zooey. He calls Franny “pretty” to demean her intelligence. He calls her “girl” to demean her perspective. His use of “plausible” indicates that he finds her character understandable. John Updike may be a wonderful author and an eloquent reviewer, but he will never understand Franny. I understood her when I read “Franny” for the first time. There is no trick to it, it is simply that she was speaking for me. Updike, well, perhaps Lane was speaking for him.
In this teaching, Jesus was saying that we treat one another with love and compassion as he have loved us as much as laying his life for our sake, in order for us to join him in the kingdom of God. He said that we should speak well even to those who curse and despitefully use us and abuse us because, our reward for such time is in heaven and it is God who will revenge about these things for us. He said that we should love our enemy also not only our friends because God loves us the same way and God does not discriminate from anyone, despite their falls.
At five feet and seven inches, a blonde hair, blue eyed adolescent woman is what people visually perceive when they first glance at me smiling while conversing with friends or sitting at a table concentrating on a task. Many times before, people expressed that I am approachable. This perception is one that I yearn to maintain; however, there is one characteristic that I prefer to enhance. In St. Patrick’s prayer, he states this, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left,” and he goes on to saying how Christ is there when people reflect on him and address him in conversation. This perception is one I desire. I recognize Christ in me and around
Having been a Christian for many years I thought that I had a fair knowledge of what it meant to pray. I was amazed and humbled by the idea that through Jesus’ restorative act on the cross I am able to come into God’s presence - and not only come but be welcomed and even longed for. I believed that prayer is a powerful tool to petition God , a vehicle to praise Him , and an instrument to increase our intimacy with Him . I understood that people pray in a variety of ways, based on the teaching they have received, their experience, and even their personality. Most commonly, I engaged in prayer as a conversation with God.