Re: about that left buisiness: the paper
Catherine Marie (tangerineness@hotmail.com)
Tue, 01 Jun 1999 20:47:57 -0700 (PDT)
if anyone wants to read this, here it is, my "left" vs. "right" paper.
someone expressed interest in reading it. (I was an almost but not quite
enlightened high school sophomore when i wrote this, so keep that in mind.
also, the introduction is particularily bad, and i apologize for that. if
fact, you could probably even skip it) i'd like to hear what other people
think about the ideas, though.
In Franny and Zooey, a large conflict between truth, and society’s view of
truth exists. Truth comes in many forms, from the search for religious truth
or enlightenment, to what it means to be true to one’s self, and, although
not quite as prominent, at what cost should truth come. Truth cannot come
through using the idea of normal, but one must search for a connection with
truth, however, merely trying to find truth is never successful, because
truth, on it’s own, is useless with out understanding how to connect it with
life. By understanding the connection between truth, and normal life, and
where they intersect, Franny is able to gain a true understanding of life.
In Franny and Zooey, J. D. Salinger uses many references to the directions
right and left. Although they may seem insignificant upon reading the
novel, clear patterns form into what many of these references mean.
Although not used as a direction in this case, the word right refers to
“correct”, making the opposite left, “incorrect” or “wrong”. The word right
can also mean “normal”, making left “different”. In this quote, the use of
the word right shows much of the relationship between what “correct” or
“normal” mean in the context of the book. As Lane and Franny are at the
restaurant, Lane begins to realize that, “It was very clear that the sense
of well-being he had felt, a half hour earlier, at being in the right place
with the right, or right-looking, girl was now totally gone,” (20). In this
situation, Lane had felt a “sense of well-being” or comforted at being with
someone who was “right, or right-looking”. There is an important
distinction that he says right, as opposed to another word that would
suggest good, rather than right, which means he is concerned with her being
correct for the situation, or the correct type of girl to be with. By this
definition, the word “right”, has the connotation of being what society
thinks is right, not what is true. Lane is not in search of any type of
truth, since he is so concerned with what society views as what is right for
him. Because it says that sense of comfort was gone, it shows that Franny
does not fit into his, and society’s ideas of what it is to be normal.
While less direct, the direction left represents truth in this book. While
Zooey is in Seymore and Buddy’s old room, sitting at Seymore’s desk, the
narrator says, “Behind him and at his left, two curtained windows, with
their blinds half drawn, faced into a court—and unpicturesque
brick-and-concrete valley…” (180). The direction left here indicates where
this court is. The court is “unpicturesque”, but very real. The
significance of the fact that it is not nice is important, because in real
life, many things are not nice, or normal, and are ignored for this reason.
On the literal level, one can say that, to Zooey’s left, is something real,
or true. So that, in the book, to the left, the characters can find truth.
Some characters, such as Lane, are not able to see this truth, because they
do not want to find it, and are in a sense blind to truth. When Lane and
Ray Sorenson are waiting for the train, Salinger says, “Both boys turned
sort of half left to face the incoming engine,” (6-7). Because they are
turning only half left towards the engine to see it come in, it shows that
they only look at certain parts of what truth is. They, as members of
normal society, only look part of the way to the left, or truth. From the
context, it almost sounds as if turning all the way would be an
inconvenience to them, that being their reason not to turn all the way
around. This shows that normal society is not willing to suffer for truth,
or even be slightly inconvenienced.
While normal society is not willing to find truth, those who do want truth
must search for it, often causing them to suffer, even upon the discovery of
truth. Franny and Zooey both have what normal society would consider
similar problems. Their problem is in a way that they do search for truth,
and that they allow their lives to be different due to it. Franny is the
case at hand, in this book, who is most actively searching for truth. She
finds it through the pilgrim book, “Franny looked down at her left hand.
She had a small pea-green clothbound book in it,” (8). The book is in her
left hand, which is her connection to truth. The book is the path she is
taking to get there, so Salinger may be, consciously or otherwise,
suggesting that she is trying to connect to this source of truth. Since she
has carried it around for sometime, but still continues to, even through
inconvenience, it shows that she really does want to actively search for
truth. In a later scene, when she is at the restaurant with Lane, Franny
shows how she is willing to suffer for a connection with some sort of truth.
“She put her right hand on the bar, then lowered her head—bowed it—and put
her left hand to her forehead, just touching it with her fingertips. She
weaved a trifle, than fainted, collapsing to the floor,” (41). In this
quote, it is as if she is trying to gain some view of truth, because of the
way she touches her forehead with her left hand, representing an attempt to
connect to reality, and truth. She, however, has her right hand, her
connection to normal life, on the counter, as if to support her. This
suggests that the reason she has fallen, meaning not only the literal faint,
but also generally her problems, is because she is trying to reach truth,
but the normal, or “right” world cannot support her attempt. Throughout the
book, Franny seems convinced that everything normal is terrible, for example
not only the ideas Professor Tupper has, but also the way he messes with his
hair. When Franny was asleep the narrator says, “Her right hand, however,
on the coverlet, was not just merely closed but shut tight; the fingers were
clenched, the thumb tucked in…” (123). Because Franny is asleep, and so is
not aware of her actions, her actions are likely to represent a reality
about her situation. Because she is holding her right hand closed so
tightly, it suggests that she is trying incredibly hard to keep out all of
normal society. This connects to her fear not of competing, but that she
would compete. She has to really try hard not let these parts of normal
society into her, so she must want very much to find truth. This may be
part of why she has, as of this part, yet to realize these truths.
Zooey is looking for the same thing as Franny, but finds truth in different
forms. While Zooey is shaving, Bessie is telling Zooey he should be more
kind, and brings up Buddy. Zooey drops his razor, “Quite probably Zooey
hadn’t intended to send his razor crashing into the wastebasket but had
merely brought his left hand down with such suddenness and violenceness that
the razor got away from him,” (102-103). He is upset that his mother is
bringing up his brother so often. Because he drops the razor from his left
hand, it shows the violent aspect that Zooey has to finding a truth that he
did not want to see. Zooey is not closed to truth, but it hurts him to
realize it, which is why he has such a violent reaction to his mother’s
statement. It is as if once he discovers something that is true, he cannot
deny it, or put it in the back of his mind where he will forget it. This
example is similar to the Four Vows, where he believes, but wishes that he
did not have to, but since he has discovered their truth, he knows he has to
follow it. This shows that Zooey is willing to admit truth, even when he
does not want to, which implies that Zooey has an understanding of what
truth is, and should be.
Unlike Franny, Zooey does not completely try to block out everything on the
right, or that society, but has learned how to find truth, and reality,
through an understanding of what the relationship between right and left
should be. At the end of the book, however, as Franny reaches some type of
enlightenment, she realizes this truth, and is able to live. While he is at
Seymore’s desk, Zooey “…opened the left-hand bottom drawer of the desk, and
took out, using both hands, a seven- or eight-inch-thick stack of what
appeared to be—and were—shirt cardboards,” (181). Zooey has come to the
room to gain some sort of wisdom to, hopefully, help Franny. The
significance of the left-hand drawer is that these cardboards, which have
great meaning to Zooey as a source of wisdom, are in it. The left side of
the desk, therefor, contains truth, and wisdom, which is where it would be
expected to be based on the usage of the word left in this book. The other
significant thing in this quote is the use of “both hands”. This is
important, because this implies the left and right working together. It may
seem that Zooey should not be able to gain wisdom through using his right
hand, but it suggests a much different meaning when they are working
together, than when either hand is being used. It suggests that he has an
understanding of both, and does not try to hide from society in the same way
that Franny does. He is able to acknowledge that the right side exists, and
keeps in mind that it is the world he is living in, rather than some far
away place he will never go to. He is faced with that world every day he
leaves the house or even turns on the radio. By learning how to believe
what he does in the context of the world he lives in, he is able to reach an
even deeper truth. This is a truth Franny learns as the book closes. After
Zooey tells her that the Fat Lady is Christ, “For joy, apparently, it was
all Franny could do to hold the phone, even with both hands,” (202). Due to
what Zooey has just told her, Franny has in a way become enlightened. She
is no longer trying to keep everything from the “right” out, but now is
using both hands for the same purpose: to hold the phone. Part of what
Zooey told her was that everyone is the Fat Lady, but the Fat Lady is also
Christ, so that she realized that everyone, who makes up the “right” society
is Christ, so she is no longer afraid of it. She is now able to let both
sides work together, so she will be able to go on with life, even in the
world that she is so different from.
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