RE: Seymour's Suicide
David Alan (das42@hotmail.com)
Mon, 14 Jul 1997 08:11:52 -0700 (PDT)
>Anyway, the thing that strikes me about Seymour's suicide is that he
did
>it while Muriel was in the room sleeping. There are hints throughout
>the story that he had intended to commit suicide for a while. But why
>didn't he take the gun, find a secluded spot on the beach, and do it
>there? Was he so disgusted with Muriel at this point that he wanted
her
>to wake up to the sight of his head blown to bits all over the hotel
>room? Seymour struck me as a person who didn't deliberately want to
>hurt anyone. The thought of him putting a bullet through his brilliant
>(albeit tortured) brain bothers me immensely, but so does the thought
of
>what Muriel will have to face when she wakes up.
>
>Am I weird to feel sorry for Muriel (I know, it's like feeling sorry
for
>the section man or some of the pretentious guys at Pency Prep), or does
>anyone else feel that way too?
>
>Jennifer
This reminds me of something I was thinking the other day while reading
"Seymour: An Introduction" in the airport. Buddy is telling us all about
Seymour and he mentions a story that he wrote about the day Seymour
killed himself (referring to "A Perfect Day..." I have always assumed?).
Anyway, Buddy says that after writing that story, he realized that the
character in it was not like Seymour really, but more like himself
(Buddy). I was thinking that maybe Salinger wrote "A Perfect Day..."
before he really knew that he was going to explore the Glass family so
thoroughly. Maybe later, when he decided to write more about Seymour, he
realized that he wanted him to be a little different from how he had
started. Anyway... I was thinking maybe that was why he said all that
stuff (through Buddy) in "Seymour: An Introduction" about Seymous not
really being like that.
Ya think? (I really hope this made some kinda sense. I was just kinda
typing like a madman)
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