Franny and Zooey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 1961 hardcover |
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| Author | J. D. Salinger |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
| Released | Fall 1961 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 201 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-316-76954-1 (hc) |
| Preceded by | Nine Stories |
| Followed by | Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction |
Franny and Zooey is a 1961 pair of stories, published together in book form, by J. D. Salinger, the author best known for The Catcher in the Rye. Both stories take place in November 1955. The stories originally appeared in The New Yorker magazine and were published in book form in September 1961. Franny and Zooey are two members of the Glass family, a frequent focus of Salinger's writings. Salinger writes about the Glass family in Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters, Seymour -- An Introduction, Hapworth 16, 1924 and Nine Stories.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
The first story, named for Franny Glass, is a significantly shorter story than the second. It tells the tale of a female undergraduate at a prestigious women's liberal arts college, possibly Wellesley, who is becoming disenchanted with the selfishness and inauthenticity she perceives all around her.
The second story, named for Zooey Glass, who is Franny's older brother (by five years), is much longer. Zooey is a somewhat emotionally toughened genius who at the age of twelve had "a vocabulary on an exact par with Mary Baker Eddy's." As Franny suffers a spiritual and existential breakdown in her parents' Manhattan living room--leaving her mother, Bessie, deeply concerned--Zooey comes to her aid, offering brotherly love, understanding, and words of sage advice.
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Franny
Franny is the story of Franny Glass's weekend date with her collegiate boyfriend, Lane Coutell. The story opens with Lane, awaiting Franny's train arrival, re-reading her latest glowing letter. It is the weekend of the famous Harvard-Yale football game, and Franny has come into Boston to spend the weekend with Lane. She is carrying with her a book, which turns out to be The Way of a Pilgrim, a Russian religious text that explores the idea of continuous prayer and spiritual illumination. The two go out for lunch. Lane is ambitious and pretentious. He takes Franny to a fashionable lunch spot, and tries to impress her with his news of receiving a suggestion to publish his latest paper on Flaubert. Franny is clearly upset, questioning the importance of college education and the worth of Lane's friends. She is smoking, sweating, and feeling faint and must excuse herself to visit the restroom, where, after a crying spell, she regains her composure. She returns to the table, where Lane questions her on the small book she has been carrying. She responds nonchalantly that the book is titled The Way of a Pilgrim and tells the story of how a Russian wanderer learns the power of "praying without ceasing." The "Jesus Prayer," as it is known, involves internalizing the prayer to a point where, in a manner similar to a Zen koan, it becomes unconscious, almost like a heartbeat, ultimately leading to spiritual enlightenment. Lane is less interested in the story than in keeping their timetable for the party and football game, though when Franny faints, he tends to her and postpones the weekend's activities. After she wakes, he goes to get a taxi, and leaves Franny alone--practicing the act of praying without ceasing.
[edit] Zooey
Zooey is a subtly moving story that paints an intimate portrait of the Glass Family. The unusual upbringing of the children, with radio appearances as child geniuses and philosophy around the dinner table, has created a unique bond among them. Though they are not affectionate and close in a typical sense, they understand each other more than anyone else could. The isolation of the Glass children from others is clearly set up in Franny, making it the perfect story to precede Zooey.
Zooey is set on Monday, two days after Franny. The story begins with Zooey, smoking and soaking in a tub, reading a four-year-old letter from his brother Buddy. His mother Bessie enters the bathroom, and the two have a long discussion, centering upon Bessie's worries about his sister Franny, whose existential depression seen in Franny has progressed to a state of emotional collapse. After Bessie leaves, Zooey gets dressed and moves into the living room, where he finds Franny on the sofa with her cat Bloomberg and begins speaking with her. After upsetting Franny by questioning her motives for reciting the "Jesus Prayer," Zooey retreats into the former bedroom of Seymour and Buddy, Franny and Zooey's older brothers. After contemplation, Zooey telephones Franny, pretending to be their brother Buddy. Franny discovers the ruse, but she and Zooey continue to talk. Knowing that Franny reveres their eldest brother Seymour--the psychologist, spiritual leader, and confidante of the family, who committed suicide years earlier while on vacation with his wife--Zooey shares with her some words of wisdom that Seymour once gave him. By the end of the call, as the fundamental "secret" of Seymour's advice is revealed, Franny seems, in a moment reminiscent of a mystical satori, to find profound existential illumination in what Zooey has told her.
[edit] Major themes
The pair of stories makes an excellent companion to The Catcher in the Rye, as themes of angst and intellectual insecurity are present in both. Together, the two books served to define a generation in the 1960s, although Franny and Zooey has lost a great deal of its status over the years and receded into the shadow of Catcher. Franny Glass attempts to facilitate some kind of metaphysical escape from who she is through the prayer she recites; upon discovering that she is locked into her own state of being, she suffers a nervous breakdown. Her situation is deeply symbolic of the adolescent situation on the whole, and its message appealed to large audiences at the time.
Salinger's known interest in mystical teachings such as Zen Buddhism and Hindu Vedanta are evident throughout the book, particularly in a brief section in "Zooey" that includes quotations from nonfictional spiritual texts. There's also a discussion of whether the book is a "mystical story" or a "love story" in the opening section of "Zooey," as speculated by the book's "narrator," Buddy Glass (who decides it's the latter). Gerald Rosen, in his short 1977 book Zen in the Art of J. D. Salinger, observes that Franny and Zooey [sic] could be interpreted as a modern Zen tale, with the main protagonist, Franny, progressing from a state of ignorance to the deep wisdom of enlightenment.
[edit] Release details
- 1961, United States, Little, Brown and Company ISBN 0-316-76954-1, Hardback
[edit] Trivia
The actress Zooey Deschanel was named after Salinger's protagonist.
[edit] External links
- Pari (at IMDB): An Iranian movie, unauthorized adaptation of Franny and Zooey and A Perfect Day for Bananafish.
| Novels by J.D. Salinger |
|---|
| The Catcher in the Rye (1951) • Nine Stories (1953) • Franny and Zooey (1961) • Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963) |
