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the two books are similar because of the relation of seymour and the glass family, and his death. It relates because of the fact that holdens brother had died,a nd he was still upset but didi not show his feelings, and that went true for buddy and zooey. Franny and Zooey is composed of two sections, which were originally published in the New Yorker magazine as two separate short stories. The first story or section, Franny, was published in the New Yorker in January 155. In Franny, Franny Glass meets her boyfriend Lane Coutell for a football weekend at his college. They do not get to join many of the festivities, though, because during their first lunch together, Franny begins to have a breakdown. She tells Lane that she is sick of the phoniness at school and of the egotism of the faculty. She has quit the play she was in because she is embarrassed about what she feels to be acting fake. As she gets worked up, she reveals that she has become interested in the Jesus prayer, a continuous prayer meant to cleanse ones spirit. Lane mostly brushes off Frannys concerns until she faints on the way to the bathroom. As he is helping to revive her, she begins to speak the prayer. Zooey basically picks up where Franny left off. First, though, the narrator names himself. The man claiming to be the author of the story is Buddy Glass, one of Franny and Zooeys older brothers. The story resumes. It is the Monday after the weekend Frannys breakdown started, and Zooey is at home in New York City. In his conversation with his mother, Bessie Glass, it is revealed that Franny is now at home, sleeping and crying on the living room sofa. Bessie wants Zooey to talk to Franny, which he eventually does. The two of them have a long theological and personal discussion. We learn that the two of them have basically been raised on a blend of different religions, taught to them by their older brothers Buddy and Seymour. Over the course of this long discussion, Zooey helps Franny sort out her spiritual and personal beliefs, allowing her, by the end, to find peace
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Overall Analysis and Themes Through Franny Glasss spiritual breakdown, J. D. Salinger explores issues in not only mysticism and religion but also family, celebrity, education, and intellectualism. Of course, the religious themes are important By the end of the Zooey section, Salinger seems to have arrived at a spiritual doctrine, to be followed by many of his characters. Zooey Glass passes along the teachings of their older brother, Seymour, telling Franny that she should respect and honor all human beings even if she does not always like them. It is this concurrent lesson of Franny and Zooey that makes the narrator, Buddy Glass, comment that the story is about love as much as it is about spirituality--for what this doctrine asks of its subscribers is love for all humanity. Love is also a crucial element in the family relationships in Franny and Zooey. In the Glass family, the children are much more gifted and intelligent than the parents. But the children keep reminding each other that their parents must be loved and respected for everything they are and everything they have given their children. Even beyond love, family itself is a crucial theme in these stories. Zooey tells Franny that they have become freaks because their brothers taught them too much too young. But what their brothers taught also helps Franny out of her spiritual crisis. Through Seymours lessons and Zooeys impression of Buddys voice, Zooey channels enough support to talk Franny out of her distress. The Glass family is special not only because of its extreme intellectualism. In addition, all of the children were child stars on a radio talk show. Celebrity, therefore, also emerges as a subtle theme throughout the text. Broadly, the stories can be said to be about the results of being famous children. More specifically, Franny and Zooey must decide whether or not to stay famous (as actors) or leave the pursuit of fame behind. Much of what sets off Frannys breakdown is her disenchantment with the experience she is having at college. She hates both herself and others for the egotistical behavior and phony conformity in which they all engage. This theme is central to many of J. D. Salingers works but takes a redemptive twist in Franny and Zooey The author seems to acknowledge that even such people, with their huge egos and weak individual wills, should be admired and respected for their humanity, if nothing else.Plot Overview The Catcher in the Rye is set in the 150s and is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden is not specific about his location while hes telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is currently undergoing treatment in some sort of medical facility. The events he narrates take place in the few days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas, when Holden is sixteen years old. Holdens story begins on the Saturday following the end of classes at the Pencey prep school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. Pencey is Holdens fourth school; he has already failed out of three others. At Pencey, he has failed four out of five of his classes and has received notice that he is being expelled, but he is not scheduled to return home to Manhattan until Wednesday. He visits his elderly history teacher, Spencer, to say goodbye, but when Spencer tries to reprimand him for his poor academic performance, Holden becomes annoyed. Back in the dormitory, Holden is further irritated by his unhygienic neighbor, Ackley, and by his own roommate, Stradlater. Stradlater spends the evening on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl whom Holden used to date and whom he still admires. During the course of the evening, Holden grows increasingly nervous about Stradlaters taking Jane out, and when Stradlater returns, Holden questions him insistently about whether he tried to have sex with her. Stradlater teases Holden, who flies into a rage and attacks Stradlater. Stradlater pins Holden down and bloodies his nose. Holden decides that hes had enough of Pencey and will go to Manhattan three days early, stay in a hotel, and not tell his parents that he is back. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his fellow Pencey students. Though he thinks this student is a complete bastard, he tells the woman made-up stories about how shy her son is and how well respected he is at school. When he arrives at Penn Station, he goes into a phone booth and considers calling several people, but for various reasons he decides against it. He gets in a cab and asks the cab driver where the ducks in Central Park go when the lagoon freezes, but his question annoys the driver. Holden has the cab take him to the Edmont Hotel, where he checks himself in. From his room at the Edmont, Holden can see into the rooms of some of the guests in the opposite wing. He observes a man putting on silk stockings, high heels, a bra, a corset, and an evening gown. He also sees a man and a woman in another room taking turns spitting mouthfuls of their drinks into each others faces and laughing hysterically. He interprets the couples behavior as a form of sexual play and is both upset and aroused by it. After smoking a couple of cigarettes, he calls Faith Cavendish, a woman he has never met but whose number he got from an acquaintance at Princeton. Holden thinks he remembers hearing that she used to be a stripper, and he believes he can persuade her to have sex with him. He calls her, and though she is at first annoyed to be called at such a late hour by a complete stranger, she eventually suggests that they meet the next day. Holden doesnt want to wait that long and winds up hanging up without arranging a meeting. Holden goes downstairs to the Lavender Room and sits at a table, but the waiter realizes hes a minor and refuses to serve him. He flirts with three women in their thirties, who seem like theyre from out of town and are mostly interested in catching a glimpse of a celebrity. Nevertheless, Holden dances with them and feels that he is half in love with the blonde one after seeing how well she dances. After making some wisecracks about his age, they leave, letting him pay their entire tab. As Holden goes out to the lobby, he starts to think about Jane Gallagher and, in a flashback, recounts how he got to know her. They met while spending a summer vacation in Maine, played golf and checkers, and held hands at the movies. One afternoon, during a game of checkers, her stepfather came onto the porch where they were playing, and when he left Jane began to cry. Holden had moved to sit beside her and kissed her all over her face, but she wouldnt let him kiss her on the mouth. That was the closest they came to necking. Holden leaves the Edmont and takes a cab to Ernies jazz club in Greenwich Village. Again, he asks the cab driver where the ducks in Central Park go in the winter, and this cabbie is even more irritable than the first one. Holden sits alone at a table in Ernies and observes the other patrons with distaste. He runs into Lillian Simmons, one of his older brothers former girlfriends, who invites him to sit with her and her date. Holden says he has to meet someone, leaves, and walks back to the Edmont. Maurice, the elevator operator at the Edmont, offers to send a prostitute to Holdens room for five dollars, and Holden agrees. A young woman, identifying herself as Sunny, arrives at his door. She pulls off her dress, but Holden starts to feel peculiar and tries to make conversation with her. He claims that he recently underwent a spinal operation and isnt sufficiently recovered to have sex with her, but he offers to pay her anyway. She sits on his lap and talks dirty to him, but he insists on paying her five dollars and showing her the door. Sunny returns with Maurice, who demands another five dollars from Holden. When Holden refuses to pay, Maurice punches him in the stomach and leaves him on the floor, while Sunny takes five dollars from his wallet. Holden goes to bed. He wakes up at ten oclock on Sunday and calls Sally Hayes, an attractive girl whom he has dated in the past. They arrange to meet for a matinee showing of a Broadway play. He eats breakfast at a sandwich bar, where he converses with two nuns about Romeo and Juliet. He gives the nuns ten dollars. He tries to telephone Jane Gallagher, but her mother answers the phone, and he hangs up. He takes a cab to Central Park to look for his younger sister, Phoebe, but she isnt there. He helps one of Phoebes schoolmates tighten her skate, and the girl tells him that Phoebe might be in the Museum of Natural History. Though he knows that Phoebes class wouldnt be at the museum on a Sunday, he goes there anyway, but when he gets there he decides not to go in and instead takes a cab to the Biltmore Hotel to meet Sally. Holden and Sally go to the play, and Holden is annoyed that Sally talks with a boy she knows from Andover afterward. At Sallys suggestion, they go to Radio City to ice skate. They both skate poorly and decide to get a table instead. Holden tries to explain to Sally why he is unhappy at school, and actually urges her to run away with him to Massachusetts or Vermont and live in a cabin. When she refuses, he calls her a pain in the ass and laughs at her when she reacts angrily. She refuses to listen to his apologies and leaves. Holden calls Jane again, but there is no answer. He calls Carl Luce, a young man who had been Holdens student advisor at the Whooton School and who is now a student at Columbia University. Luce arranges to meet him for a drink after dinner, and Holden goes to a movie at Radio City to kill time. Holden and Luce meet at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel. At Whooton, Luce had spoken frankly with some of the boys about sex, and Holden tries to draw him into a conversation about it once more. Luce grows irritated by Holdens juvenile remarks about homosexuals and about Luces Chinese girlfriend, and he makes an excuse to leave early. Holden continues to drink Scotch and listen to the pianist and singer. Quite drunk, Holden telephones Sally Hayes and babbles about their Christmas Eve plans. Then he goes to the lagoon in Central Park, where he used to watch the ducks as a child. It takes him a long time to find it, and by the time he does, he is freezing cold. He then decides to sneak into his own apartment building and wake his sister, Phoebe. He is forced to admit to Phoebe that he was kicked out of school, which makes her mad at him. When he tries to explain why he hates school, she accuses him of not liking anything. He tells her his fantasy of being the catcher in the rye, a person who catches little children as they are about to fall off of a cliff. Phoebe tells him that he has misremembered the poem that he took the image from Robert Burnss poem says if a body meet a body, coming through the rye, not catch a body. Holden calls his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who tells Holden he can come to his apartment. Mr. Antolini asks Holden about his expulsion and tries to counsel him about his future. Holden cant hide his sleepiness, and Mr. Antolini puts him to bed on the couch. Holden awakens to find Mr. Antolini stroking his forehead. Thinking that Mr. Antolini is making a homosexual overture, Holden hastily excuses himself and leaves, sleeping for a few hours on a bench at Grand Central Station. Holden goes to Phoebes school and sends her a note saying that he is leaving home for good and that she should meet him at lunchtime at the museum. When Phoebe arrives, she is carrying a suitcase full of clothes, and she asks Holden to take her with him. He refuses angrily, and she cries and then refuses to speak to him. Knowing she will follow him, he walks to the zoo, and then takes her across the park to a carousel. He buys her a ticket and watches her ride it. It starts to rain heavily, but Holden is so happy watching his sister ride the carousel that he is close to tears. Holden ends his narrative here, telling the reader that he is not going to tell the story of how he went home and got sick. He plans to go to a new school in the fall and is cautiously optimistic about his future.Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Alienation as a Form of Self-Protection - Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him. As he says to Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on the other side of life, and he continually attempts to find his way in a world in which he feels he doesnt belong.As the novel progresses, we begin to perceive that Holdens alienation is his way of protecting himself. Just as he wears his hunting hat (see Symbols, below) to advertise his uniqueness, he uses his isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else around him and therefore above interacting with them. The truth is that interactions with other people usually confuse and overwhelm him, and his cynical sense of superiority serves as a type of self-protection. Thus, Holdens alienation is the source of what little stability he has in his life.As readers, we can see that Holdens alienation is the cause of most of his pain. He never addresses his own emotions directly, nor does he attempt to discover the source of his troubles. He desperately needs human contact and love, but his protective wall of bitterness prevents him from looking for such interaction. Alienation is both the source of Holdens strength and the source of his problems. For example, his loneliness propels him into his date with Sally Hayes, but his need for isolation causes him to insult her and drive her away. Similarly, he longs for the meaningful connection he once had with Jane Gallagher, but he is too frightened to make any real effort to contact her. He depends upon his alienation, but it destroys him.The Painfulness of Growing Up - According to most analyses, The Catcher in the Rye is a bildungsroman, a novel about a young characters growth into maturity. While it is appropriate to discuss the novel in such terms, Holden Caulfield is an unusual protagonist for a bildungsroman because his central goal is to resist the process of maturity itself. As his thoughts about the Museum of Natural History demonstrate, Holden fears change and is overwhelmed by complexity. He wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed, like the statues of Eskimos and Indians in the museum. He is frightened because he is guilty of the sins he criticizes in others, and because he cant understand everything around him. But he refuses to acknowledge this fear, expressing it only in a few instancesfor example, when he talks about sex and admits that [s]ex is something I just dont understand. I swear to God I dont (Chapter ).Instead of acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden invents a fantasy that adulthood is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy (phoniness), while childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. Nothing reveals his image of these two worlds better than his fantasy about the catcher in the rye he imagines childhood as an idyllic field of rye in which children romp and play; adulthood, for the children of this world, is equivalent to deatha fatal fall over the edge of a cliff. His created understandings of childhood and adulthood allow Holden to cut himself off from the world by covering himself with a protective armor of cynicism. But as the book progresses, Holdens experiences, particularly his encounters with Mr. Antolini and Phoebe, reveal the shallowness of his conceptions.The Phoniness of the Adult World - Phoniness, which is probably the most famous phrase from The Catcher in the Rye, is one of Holdens favorite concepts. It is his catch-all for describing the superficiality, hypocrisy, pretension, and shallowness that he encounters in the world around him. In Chapter , just before he reveals his fantasy of the catcher in the rye, Holden explains that adults are inevitably phonies, and, whats worse, they cant see their own phoniness. Phoniness, for Holden, stands as an emblem of everything thats wrong in the world around him and provides an excuse for him to withdraw into his cynical isolation.Though oversimplified, Holdens observations are not entirely inaccurate. He can be a highly insightful narrator, and he is very aware of superficial behavior in those around him. Throughout the novel he encounters many characters who do seem affected, pretentious, or superficialSally Hayes, Carl Luce, Maurice and Sunny, and even Mr. Spencer stand out as examples. Some characters, like Maurice and Sunny, are genuinely harmful. But although Holden expends so much energy searching for phoniness in others, he never directly observes his own phoniness. His deceptions are generally pointless and cruel and he notes that he is a compulsive liar. For example, on the train to New York, he perpetrates a mean-spirited and needless prank on Mrs. Morrow. Hed like us to believe that he is a paragon of virtue in a world of phoniness, but that simply isnt the case. Although hed like to believe that the world is a simple place, and that virtue and innocence rest on one side of the fence while superficiality and phoniness rest on the other, Holden is his own counterevidence. The world is not as simple as hed likeand needsit to be; even he cannot adhere to the same black-and-white standards with which he judges other people.Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the texts major themes.Loneliness - Holdens loneliness, a more concrete manifestation of his alienation problem, is a driving force throughout the book. Most of the novel describes his almost manic quest for companionship as he flits from one meaningless encounter to another. Yet, while his behavior indicates his loneliness, Holden consistently shies away from introspection and thus doesnt really know why he keeps behaves as he does. Because Holden depends on his isolation to preserve his detachment from the world and to maintain a level of self-protection, he often sabotages his own attempts to end his loneliness. For example, his conversation with Carl Luce and his date with Sally Hayes are made unbearable by his rude behavior. His calls to Jane Gallagher are aborted for a similar reason to protect his precious and fragile sense of individuality. Loneliness is the emotional manifestation of the alienation Holden experiences; it is both a source of great pain and a source of his security.Relationships, Intimacy, and Sexuality - Relationships, intimacy, and sexuality are also recurring motifs relating to the larger theme of alienation. Both physical and emotional relationships offer Holden opportunity to break out of his isolated shell. They also represent what he fears most about the adult world complexity, unpredictability, and potential for conflict and change. As he demonstrates at the Museum of Natural History, Holden likes the world to be silent and frozen, predictable and unchanging. As he watches Phoebe sleep, Holden projects his own idealizations of childhood onto her. But in real-world relationships, people talk back, and Phoebe reveals how different her childhood is from Holdens romanticized notion. Because people are unpredictable, they challenge Holden and force him to question his senses of self-confidence and self-worth. For intricate and unspoken reasons, seemingly stemming from Allies death, Holden has trouble dealing with this kind of complexity. As a result, he has isolated himself and fears intimacy. Although he encounters opportunities for both physical and emotional intimacy, he bungles them all, wrapping himself in a psychological armor of critical cynicism and bitterness. Even so, Holden desperately continues searching for new relationships, always undoing himself only at the last moment.Lying and Deception - Lying and deception are the most obvious and hurtful elements of the larger category of phoniness. Holdens definition of phoniness relies mostly on a kind of self-deception he seems to reserve the most scorn for people who think that they are something they are not or who refuse to acknowledge their own weaknesses. But lying to others is also a kind of phoniness, a type of deception that indicates insensitivity, callousness, or even cruelty. Of course, Holden himself is guilty of both these crimes. His random and repeated lying highlights his own self-deceptionhe refuses to acknowledge his own shortcomings and is unwilling to consider how his behavior affects those around him. Through his lying and deception, Holden proves that he is just as guilty of phoniness as the people he criticizes.Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.The Catcher in the Rye - As the source of the books title, this symbol merits close inspection. It first appears in Chapter 16, when a kid Holden admires for walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk is singing the Robert Burns song Comin Thro the Rye. In Chapter , when Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do with his life, he replies with his image, from the song, of a catcher in the rye. Holden imagines a field of rye perched high on cliff, full of children romping and playing. He says he would like to protect the children from falling off the edge of the cliff by catching them if they were on the verge of tumbling over. As Phoebe points out, Holden has misheard the lyric. He thinks the line is If a body catch a body comin through the rye, but the actual lyric is If a body meet a body, coming through the rye.The song Comin Thro the Rye asks if it is wrong for two people to have a romantic encounter out in the fields, away from the public eye, even if they dont plan to have a commitment to one another. It is highly ironic that the word meet refers to an encounter that leads to recreational sex, because the word that Holden substitutescatchtakes on the exact opposite meaning in his mind. Holden wants to catch children before they fall out of innocence into knowledge of the adult world, including knowledge of sex.Holdens Red Hunting Hat - The red hunting hat is one of the most recognizable symbols from twentieth-century American literature. It is inseparable from our image of Holden, with good reason it is a symbol of his uniqueness and individuality. The hat is outlandish, and it shows that Holden desires to be different from everyone around him. At the same time, he is very self-conscious about the hathe always mentions when he is wearing it, and he often doesnt wear it if he is going to be around people he knows. The presence of the hat, therefore, mirrors the central conflict in the book Holdens need for isolation versus his need for companionship.Even though the hat symbolizes Holdens isolation, like all hunting hats, it eventually symbolizes the more positive value of protection, specifically the protection of childhood innocence. Holden gives his hat to his beloved sister Phoebe before leaving her to go out west. She has just given him money to protect him on his journey and he offers her something that he feels connected to and that will protect her. In doing so, he divests the hat of its negative symbolism (that of being a crutch for him to rely upon) and emphasizes the positive protective qualities for which it was originally made.The Museum of Natural History - Holden explicitly tells us the symbolic meaning of the museums displays they appeal to him because they are frozen and unchanging. He also mentions that he is troubled by the fact that he has changed every time he returns to them. The museum represents the world Holden wishes he could live in its the world of his catcher in the rye fantasy, a world where nothing ever changes, where everything is simple, understandable, and infinite. Holden is terrified by the unpredictable challenges of the worldhe hates conflict, he is confused by Allies senseless death, and he fears interaction with other people.The Ducks in the Central Park Lagoon - Holdens curiosity about the where the ducks go during the winter reveals a genuine, more youthful side to his character. For most of the book, he sounds like a grumpy old man who is angry at the world, but his search for the ducks represents the curiosity of youth and a joyful willingness to encounter the mysteries of the world. It is memorable moment, because Holden clearly lacks such willingness in other aspects of his life.The ducks and their pond are symbolic in several ways. Their mysterious perseverance in the face of an inhospitable environment resonates with Holdens understanding of his own situation. In addition, the ducks prove that some vanishings are only temporary. Traumatized and made acutely aware of the fragility of life by his brother Allies death, Holden is terrified by the idea of change and disappearance. The ducks vanish every winter, but they return every spring, thus symbolizing change that isnt permanent, but cyclical. Finally, the pond itself becomes a minor metaphor for the world as Holden sees it, because it is partly frozen and partly not frozen. The pond is in transition between two states, just as Holden is in transition between childhood and adulthood. Key Facts Full title - The Catcher in the RyeAuthor - J. D. SalingerType of work - NovelGenre - Bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel)Language - EnglishTime and place written - Late 140searly 150s, New YorkDate of first publication - July 151; parts of the novel appeared as short stories in Colliers, December 145, and in the New Yorker, December 146Publisher - Little, Brown, and CompanyNarrator - Holden Caulfield, narrating from a psychiatric facility at an unspecified length of time from the events of the novelPoint of view - Holden Caulfield narrates in the first person, describing what he himself sees and experiences, providing his own commentary on the events and people he describes.Tone - Holdens tone varies between disgust, cynicism, bitterness, and nostalgic longing, all expressed in a colloquial style.Tense - PastSetting (time) - A long weekend in the late 140s or early 150sSetting (place) - Holden begins his story in Pennsylvania, at his former school, Pencey Prep. He then recounts his adventures in New York City.Protagonist - Holden CaulfieldMajor Conflict - The major conflict is within Holdens psyche. Part of him wants to connect with other people on an adult level (and, more specifically, to have a sexual encounter), while part of him wants to reject the adult world as phony, and to retreat into his own memories of childhood.Rising Action - Holdens many attempts to connect with other people over the course of the novel bring his conflicting impulsesto interact with other people as an adult, or to retreat from them as a childinto direct conflict.Climax - Possible climaxes include Holdens encounter with Sunny, when it becomes clear that he is unable to handle a sexual encounter; the end of his date with Sally, when he tries to get her to run away with him; and his departure from Mr. Antolinis apartment, when he begins to question his characteristic mode of judging other people.Falling action - Holdens interactions with Phoebe, culminating in his tears of joy at watching Phoebe on the carousel (at the novels end he has retreated into childhood, away from the threats of adult intimacy and sexuality)Themes - Alienation as a form of self-protection; the painfulness of growing up; the phoniness of the adult worldMotifs - Relationships, intimacy, and sexuality; loneliness; lying and deceptionSymbols - The catcher in the rye; Holdens red hunting hat; the Museum of Natural History; the ducks in the Central Park lagoonForeshadowing - At the beginning of the book, Holden hints that he has been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, the story of which is revealed over the course of the novelThe Work of J.D. SalingerMany critics consider J.D. Salinger a very controversial writer, for thesubject matters that he writes.. J.D. Salingers works were generallywritten during two time periods. The first time period was during WorldWar II, and the second time period was during the 160s. Critics feelthat the works during the 160 time period were very inappropriate, becauseof the problems for which he wrote. The main characters were generallymisfits of society. In most of his works, he has the protagonist of thestory go on a quest for happiness. Salinger does not conform to thematerial happiness; the characters undergo a spiritual happiness. Thecharacters generally start out as in bad conditions, through the end of hisworks they undergone changes that change them for the better. The works ofJ.D. Salinger show the quest for happiness through religion, loneliness,and symbolism.Salingers works often use religion in order to portray comfort. InSalingers Nine Stories Franny Glass keeps reciting the Jesus Prayer tocope with the suicide of her brother Seymour (Bloom in Bryfonski andSenick 6). Salinger is able to use this prayer as a means of comfort forFranny. The prayer stands for the last hope for Franny in this situation.Franny would be lost if their was no prayer. (Bryfonski and Senick 71).Salinger shows us comfort in Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caufield, theprotagonist, is very much in despair for losing his girlfriend, so Caufieldreads a passage in the Bible. This helps Holden change his outlook on life(Salzberg 75). Holden was all alone at this point and had no one to turnback on, until he found the Bible (Salzberg 76). In both stories thecharacters had found themselves in bad situations. The characters in theseworks have obstacles which they must overcome in order to achieve happiness(Salzman 4). Happiness is the very substance which all of thesecharacters are striving for in Salingers works. Salinger uses religion inhis works to comfort them so that they can proceed on their quest toachieve happiness.Salinger uses religion as a means for liberation. Salinger uses much ofthe Zen philosophy, as in the case of Nine Stories, to achieve thisliberation (Madsen ). In Nine Stories one of the characters, SeymourGlass, is portrayed as Buddha in the sense that he wants to be liberated asBuddha was in his life (Madsen ). Seymour Glass in Nine Stories has acertain philosophy about life, it is similar to the Eightfold Path used byBuddha when achieving nirvana (French in Matuz 1). Seymour Glass is on aquest to become free from all of the suffering in his life as Buddha wasfrom his life (French in Matuz 1). Seymour follows the Eightfold pathto become liberated from suffering (Madsen 6). Seymour achieves nirvanaby living a good life and end anything that causes suffering. Seymour isable to attain nirvana by committing suicide (Lundquist in Matuz 11).Salinger shows us that when Seymour committed suicide he let go of all ofthe suffering that he encountered, thus attaining the happiness he longedfor (French, Salinger Revisited 1). Salinger shows liberation as an endto all suffering, thus creating happiness for the character. (French,Salinger Revisited 1).The final function of religion as a means to attain happiness was to gainpeace In The Young Lion, Salinger uses religion to gain peace through afictitious war. In the story many of the soldiers were dying and thecountries were in turmoil (Lundquist 1). The leaders in the story see avision on the battlefield that changes them, and stops the war (Lundquist15). Salinger shows how religion can be a force used to create happinessin a story, by creating peace (Lundquist 1). Salinger is able to usereligion as a means of attaining happiness through peace. The story seemedvery dismal, until religion intervened and stopped the conflict. Salingercreates happiness for the characters by stopping the conflict. In TheStranger Salinger creates peace through a war by using more of the Zenphilosophy. Salingers creates a Pact of Peace which stops the conflictbetween the Germans and Polish during WWII (Hamilton in Bryfonski andSenick 14) . The Pact of Peace was a teaching used by Buddhain the Zenphilosophy (Hamilton in Bryfonski and Senick 14). Salinger uses Zen, inthis case, to stop the conflict between the Polish and Germans(Hamilton inBryfonski and Senick 14). In many of Salingers works the conflict,becomes a source for much of the unhappiness in the story (Wenke 1).Salinger uses religion as a medium to create tranquility, consequently thecharacters to achieve happiness (Wenke 15).In many of Salingers works loneliness is used to isolate characters fromevil. Salinger portrays all of society to be bad, and for many charactersisolation from society is the only way to achieve happiness (Grunwald 10).In Salingers Catcher in the Rye Holden Caufields entire plot deals withhim trying to isolate from society. Holden realizes that society hasbecome bad, and wants no part in this terrible life (French, SalingerRevisited 1). Salinger uses society as the source of discord in thiscase to be isolated from. Holden is shown as a hermit at the end of Catcherin the Rye (Grunwald 68). Grunwald explains Holdens tranquillity, at theend, can be ascribed to his isolation from society (68). Holden onlywants to be separated from the society which considers him a misfit. InSalingers works a source of unhappiness is usually the fact that societyfeels the characters are misfits. The characters can only become happy ifthey isolate themselves from this society.Salinger uses loneliness also as a means to change in life. In Raise theRoof Beam High, Salinger is able to use isolation to change the life ofSeymour Glass (Salzman 10). Seymour feels that society has become corruptand must change his lifestyle in order for him to become happy (Salzman14). Seymour sees that society has no more compassion on people, and thathe must do something to change it (Salzman 16). In order for him tochange society he must first isolate from society (Salzman 140). Salingeruses loneliness again to benefit mankind. Salinger in this case makes aperson change his lifestyle to isolate from society (Salzman 1). Thebenefits of this action are good not only for the person who has changed,but also help parts of society which are affected (Salzman 1).Loneliness in Salingers works benefits the characters greatly. Salingeris able to isolate the characters in his works in order for them to attainhappiness (Grunwald 65). Salinger describes Seymour as A recluse,whowill never be part of society (Grunwald 60). He shows that Seymour wantsnothing of this world and wants to be as far away as possible. Thecharacters see that society has become bad, and in order for them to becomehappy they must get away from society, and live their own lives.Salinger uses many lucky symbols in his works to show to fulfill the questfor happiness. In Soft-Broiled Sergeant one of the soldiers wears a pairof lucky underwear, which saves him in battle and helps in finding the loveof his life (French, J.D. Salinger 4). The underwear gives the soldierthe happiness he is looking for (French, J.D. Salinger 45). Salinger manytimes uses funny lucky symbols like this, but can be found to providehappiness for the characters (Salzberg 11). Another example of luckysymbols is in For Esme Salinger portrays the sun as a lucky symbol toJoseph Carney (French, J.D. Salinger 6). The sun is lucky to Joseph inthat it helps Joseph turn his entire life around, from the rut it had beeninto a life of great prosperity (French, J.D. Salinger 66). The sunprovides inspiration for Joseph to change his life (French, J.D. Salinger66). The characters in J.D. Salingers works start out in bad situations.Through the use of lucky symbols their life is changed to what will makethem happy.Salinger uses symbolism in his works also to foreshadow a better life. InLong Debut of Louis Taggett the symbol of a cigarette being put outforeshadows the end of a marriage (Galloway in Curley and Kramer 58). Theend of this marriage for Louis Taggett, means good for his life (Gallowayin Curley and Kramer 61). Louis at the end of the story is able toconcentrate more on his job, where he meets the woman that will really lovehim, and find wealth and prosperity (Galloway in Curley and Kramer 5).This symbolism to foreshadow is one of many examples of how Salinger usessymbolism to predict a better life (Galloway in Curley and Kramer 61).Salinger many times use subtle, but important symbols to foreshadow betterthings (Galloway in Curley and Kramer 6). The character, in this work,has suffered through hardships. The characters life is in a total mess atthe time. Salinger also shows foreshadowing to a better life through TheLast Day of the Last Furlough (Matuz 157). In the story John Hendren isable Salinger uses symbolism for the character to fulfill his quest forhappiness(Matuz 148)John Hendren who is in World War II, has always worelarge wooden necklace given to him by his mother (Matuz 148). This samenecklace stops a bullet, which could have killed him(Matuz 14). John islater awarded a medal of respect for his valiant effort, giving him lots offame(Matuz 14). Salinger shows how such symbols provide happiness to thelives of people (Wenke 7).Salinger uses allusion from other works to show how happiness will befulfilled. In Salingers Catcher in the Rye, Salinger refers greatly inone chapter to ducks in central park. The ducks are in context to ascripture in the Bible, which tells of how the ducks are free (Galloway inBloom 5). Salinger later explains that Holden will become free as theseducks (Galloway in Bloom 54). In Catcher in the Rye Holdens main purposewas to be free from the suffering (Galloway in Bloom 58). The ducksrepresented how he would feel, being happy (Galloway in Bloom 56).Salinger also shows his symbolism from other works through the work of MarkTwain. Salinger portrays how Holden in Catcher in the Rye changes to adifferent man when he is at the water fountain in Central Park, as the casein Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn in which Huck changes when he is on theMississippi River (Grunwald in Bloom 64). Salinger uses symbolism fromother books in his books to convey how the characters in his works willchangefor a better life (Grunwald in Bloom 67). Salinger uses much of thesymbolism to show how the life of the characters has become happy.Salinger uses symbols to show the turning point of the characters lives.He shows that these symbols will change their lives for the better.The works of Salinger show the quest for happiness through religion,loneliness, and symbolism. Salingers writings deal with charactersfulfilling their quest for happiness. He would have the charactersaccomplish their quest by going through obstacles, in which they learnedabout their lives. He employed the religion, loneliness, and symbolism asmeans for the characters to understand how to obtain happiness in life.The writings of the Salinger, become very important for this time period,because he goes against the grain of society to show how it is wrong. Thewritings of Salinger, while they may have been excellent in style, havebecome very controversial for what he has portrayed in the society duringthis time period
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