J. D. Salinger :: Biography Biographies Essays

J. D. SalingerBiographer Ian Hamilton notes that J. D. Salinger has been notoriously famous for not wanting to be famous (4). Born in New York in 1919 and still living today, Salinger leads a rather se gather upered lifestyle, choosing to avoid the general attentions of the press, and thus making his life a severe subject for study. His work, however, has been cherished and studied for many another(prenominal) years. He has published many whole works of fiction both in book form and in magazines such as the New Yorker and Esquire. One of his most intriguing novels is Franny and Zooey, which is truly composed of two short stories bearing those names. It is virtuoso of several of Salingers works involving the Glass family, specifically Franny and her brother Zachary, known in the family as Zooey. Franny relates the mien in which she arrives by train to spend an afternoon with her boyfriend Lane, whom she has not seen for some time. Lane is by nature a repressive person, one who, w aiting for a train, intentionally tries to empty his face of all conceptualisation that might quite simply, perhaps even beautifully, reveal how he matt-up ab come in the arriving person (7). It beautifully and honestly illustrates the nature of their relationship, which is far little than perfect. In the wake of the suicide of her brother Seymour (which readers can learn much about in A Perfect Day for Bananafish included in Nine Stories), Franny searches for spiritual meaning in her life. Her tool in this quest is a book entitled The Way of a Pilgrim, and in pursuance the teachings of this book, she begins to consider the lack of meaning in some of her relationships, which, in this bill, alienates Lane. The mass of the story focuses on their dinner conversation, and the tension which develops between the couple is intumesce handled by Salinger for example, when Franny begins acting strangely, Lane looked at her, then exhaled an overly expressive stream of smoke down at his plate. This is going to be a real little doll of a weekend, he said (24). Eventually, out of mental exhaustion, Franny passes out in the restaurant,Zooey picks up where Franny leaves off she has been sick as a result of her increasing self-neglect. The reader meets Zooey, who spends the greater part of the story discussing with Franny her condition. Franny reveals the main point of The Way of a Pilgrim, which is to repeat the Jesus petitioner incessantly until it becomes as natural and constant a bodily make as breathing.