JD Salinger Essay Research Paper Born in

J.D. Salinger Essay, Research Paper

Born in 1919 to a prosperous Manhattan family, Jerome David Salinger grew up in a New York City milieu. Salinger s upbringing was not unlike that of Holden Caulfield, the Glass children, and many other characters used in his stories. Being a diligent student was never his first priority: after he flunked out of several prep schools, including the prestigious McBurney school, his parents sent him to Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania from which he graduated in 1936 ( J.D. Salinger , Novels 117). While attending a Columbia University writing course, Salinger had his first piece of short fiction published in Story, an influential periodical founded by his instructor, Whit Burnett. Salinger’s short fiction soon began appearing in Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and other magazines catering to popular reading tastes. Salinger entered military service in 1942 and served until the end of World War II, participating in the Normandy campaign and the liberation of France. He continued to write and publish while in the Army, often carrying a portable typewriter with him in the back of his jeep. After returning to the States, Salinger’s career as a writer of serious fiction took off. He broke into the New Yorker in 1946 with the story “Slight Rebellion Off Madison,” which was later rewritten to become a part of The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger quickly became one of the top contributors to the prestigious magazine. After The Catcher in the Rye was published, however, Salinger found himself at the center of a storm of controversy. His novel was lauded by many, but condemned by others for its language and social criticism. As it began to find its way onto the recommended reading lists of educational institutions, it also became the target of numerous censorship campaigns. The publicity gradually forced Salinger into a state of isolation. The years passed, and his continuing work on the Glass family saga drew increasing critical attacks from even those corners of the literary establishment that had once accorded him an almost cult-like reverence. He withdrew from publishing and public life altogether. His novel length story Hapworth 16, 1924, which once again revolved around an incident in the Glass family, appeared in the New Yorker in 1965; it was his last published work. Since the early 1960s, he has lived in seclusion in the state of New Hampshire. Reportedly, he continues to write, but only for his own satisfaction; he is said to be completely unconcerned with his standing, or lack of it, in the literary world. The Catcher in the Rye and much of Salinger’s shorter fiction shares the theme of idealists adrift in a corrupt world. Often, the alienated protagonists are rescued from despair by the innocence and purity of children. J.D. Salinger uses characterization and other literary elements in Franny and Zooey and style and theme in The Catcher in the Rye to reveal the theme of a sensitive individual searching for spirituality.( J.D. Salinger , Novels 117)

Franny and Zooey takes place over a long weekend in the fall of 1954 at an Eastern Ivy League college in New York City. The two main characters of this work are Franny and Zooey Glass. This novel unifies two related stories, both of which appeared in the New Yorker, in 1955 and 1957 (Harris 147). The protagonist Franny is Franny Glass. She is a twenty-year-old college student in the midst of a breakdown. She is an actress and an English Major, but has become turned off by college, both socially and academically. Zooey is the protagonist of the Zooey section of the novel. He is twenty-five years old and helps his sister through her spiritual breakdown. He is a television actor and the most popular member of the Glass family.

In Franny Franny Glass meets her boyfriend Lane Countell for a football weekend at college. Unfortunately, they do not get the opportunity to join in many of the festivities because Franny begins to have a breakdown during their first lunch together. All I know is I m losing my mind, Franny said. I m sick of ego,ego,ego. My own and everybody else s (Salinger, Franny 29). She then tells Lane that she is sick of the phoniness at school and of the egotism of the faculty. Franny has quit the play because she is embarrassed about what she considers to be acting fake. As Franny gets worked up, Franny reveals that she has began reciting the Jesus Prayer, a continuous prayer meant to cleanse one s spirit. Lane mostly brushes off Franny s concerns. Later, Franny faints in the bathroom and wakes up reciting the Jesus prayer. The Zooey section of the novel picks up where Franny left off. The author of Franny is Buddy Glass, one of Franny s and Zooey s older brothers. The story resumes the Monday after the weekend Franny s 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. During a long personal discussion, we learn that the two of them have been raised on a blend of different religions taught to them by their older brothers Buddy and Seymour. Over the course of this discussion, Zooey helps Franny sort out her spiritual and personal beliefs allowing her, by the end, to finally find peace.

Franny and Zooey features Salinger s two predominant