zooey cam- the analysis
OnyxLust@aol.com
Thu, 11 Mar 1999 22:28:12 -0500 (EST)
This is a analysis written at four in the morning, and looking back at it =
the
fat lady part in the conclusion either need expounded upon or cut out
entirely. What does everyone think?
~Megan
Intelligently Religious?
J.D. Salinger examines through the characters Franny and Zooey Gl=
ass
the struggle between religion and intelligence in the book Franny
and Zooey. The book is divided up into two sections, the first
section, Franny, deals with an introduction to Franny, the charac=
ter
that represents the religious side of the conflict. The second
section introduces Zooey, who embodies the intelligent part of th=
e
struggle, and verbalized the struggle with Franny.
At the beginning of Franny the reader is introduced not to Fran=
ny,
but to her boyfriend Lane. Although not part of the religious
struggle, he personifies everything in Franny's life that had cau=
sed
her to seek religion. The setting is in a restaurant where she
loses patience with him, and puts down everything he wants to =
talk
about, because it all seems fake to her. The only thing she had
anything pleasant to say about was when Lane asks her about a
little book he sees in her purse. This is the same book the re=
ader
saw her pull out in a bathroom stall after she cried for five
solid minutes and "=85she gazed down at it, as if that were th=
e
best of all places for a small pea-greened clothbound book to b=
e."
(22) The book, as Franny explains to Lane, is about one man's
pilgrimage to discover how to pray incessantly. Very passionately
Franny explains "The prayer becomes self active=85the words get
synchronized with the person's heartbeats, and then you're actuall=
y
praying without ceasing." (36) She tells him this after the bathro=
om
scene, and Lane responds with raised eyebrows "You actually belie=
ve
that stuff, or what?" (38) He then ties religious experiences to
"=85elementary psychology." Franny all most immediately stood up, =
and
excused herself to the bathroom. On the way there she paused,
weaved a little bit, and passed out. After a few minutes she c=
ame
to in the restaurant manager's office, where Lane takes care of =
her
and then goes to find a cab. When Franny was alone, "Her lips
began to move, forming soundless words, and they continued to mov=
e."
(43) It is clear that Franny is struggling with religion because =
it
is all that she can focus on and it is giving her physical si=
de
effects, such as a lack of appetite, and passing out.
=09The second half of the book, Zooey, begins with Zooey Glass
reading a letter from one of his older brothers in the bathtub.=
It
discloses Zooey as an actor who has chosen to pursue his career
rather than pursue what had already been a rather extensive
education. Then Zooey's mother barged into the bathroom despite
protestations from Zooey, and decides to invade his privacy for
sixty-two pages. Among a multitude of other things, his mother
brings up that she is worried about his sister, Franny, because =
she
is "=85laying there by the hour crying her eye's out if you sa=
y boo
to her, and mumbling heaven knows what to herself=85"(83) Zooey
explains to his mom what is wrong with Franny, and in doing so,
tells her about the religious book Franny keeps with her at all
times. He points out the fact that in the book, the prayer mad=
e
the man happy, and subtly suggests that Franny is upset because =
her
prayer is not working. His mom finally left the bathroom after
urging the now dressed Zooey to talk to his sister before leavi=
ng.
Zooey approaches Franny sleeping on the couch, and wakes her fro=
m a
nightmare. In the dream a bunch of people she knows keep forcin=
g
her to go underwater, and she can not figure out why. The wate=
r
represents religion to her, and the people forcing her under is =
her
struggle with religion, or more precisely, her intelligence struggl=
ing
with her religious undertaking. They begin talking, just catching =
up,
but then she started talking about how shallow everything seems =
to
her. This gives Zooey his opening to talk to her, where he mak=
es
the argument for the intelligent side of the struggle.
What do you think your doing with the Jesus Prayer?=85aren't you
trying to lay up some kind of treasure? Something that is every=
goddam bit as negotiable as all those other, more material thin=
gs?
=85As a matter of simple logic, there's no difference at all, th=
at I
can see, between the man who's greedy for material treasure- or=
even intellectual treasure- and the man who's greedy for spiritua=
l
treasure. (147)
She defends herself, saying that she knows that she is just as
self-seeking as everyone else. She utters that it is her motives
for saying the prayer that worry her, and that she doesn't need =
him
to tell her. At this point she starts crying, and after an
interval he offers to get their older brother on the phone for
her. He then starts listing how she is going about her religious
fanaticism wrong, and the last thing he lists is that she doesn=
't
understand Jesus, and therefor shouldn't say the Jesus Prayer bec=
ause
it doesn't take care of your problems for you. Zooey says that =
"=85if
you have intelligence enough to see that- and you do- and yet =
you
refuse to see it, then you are misusing the prayer. You're using=
it
to ask for a world full of dolls and saints." (170-171)
Franny started crying really hard, and Zooey, realizing his siste=
r's
condition, turned pale with anxiety. He goes into his older
brothers' abandoned room, in which he took time to get into
character, and then called Franny on a separate phone-line,
pretending to be his older brother Buddy. Franny fell for it at
first, but soon realized it was Zooey just trying to comfort he=
r.
Zooey didn't realize the solution to his and Franny's discord t=
ill
the end, when he says "You can say the Jesus Prayer from now =
till
doomsday, but if you don't realize that the only thing that cou=
nts
in the religious life is detachment, I don't see how you will =
ever
move an inch." He tells her not to give up on the rest of he=
r
life, and puts religion in terms of the Fat Lady, the religious
character of their childhood. This so simplifies things for her =
that
she can barely hold the phone she is so full of joy, and after
they get of the phone Franny crawls into bed, and falls into a
quiet sleep, smiling.
As Salinger developed the symbolism in each character to examine =
the
ongoing struggle between religion and intelligence, he also found =
a
conclusion to it. While Franny embodied the religious side of the
struggle, and she was the cause, Zooey played not only the
intelligent side of the dissension, but also became the tool to =
fix
it. Franny started out at the beginning of the story as overwhel=
med,
became depressed, but with some harsh intelligence (Zooey) found
resolution. Through the part in the plot each character plays, the struggl=
e
between religion and intelligence is clearly seen.