Notes for Franny and Zooey

Zooey

Questions

How is Buddy similar to Salinger? Is Salinger creating a role for himself in the Glass
family? (49)
How does ego (Buddys the Glass familys, and Salingers own) play a role in the story?
If Buddy is writing the story, why does he choose to write it all in third-person? (50)
Why do the Glass children constantly compare themselves to Seymour? (59)
What is the significance of the haiku when Seymour killed himself? (64)
What do Buddy and Seymour think is the purpose of education? How does this relate to
modern life? What does Buddy mean by no-knowledge? (65)
Why does Buddy constantly refer to Eastern religions? How is this related to Salinger?
(66)
What is the significance of all of the items in the cupboard? (75)
What is the significance if Salingers obsession with teeth? (76)
Why does Bessie enjoy her sons bullying? (81)
Why does Salinger spend so much time describing Bessies eyes? (89)
What does Zooey mean by an honest con man? (98)
Why does Franny lie and say that the books are from the college library? (101)
Are the Four Vows Zooeys version of the Jesus Prayer? (104)
Franny wanted to be part of the lower class or at least, not with the materialism of the
upper class. Is the reason that she likes the prayer because it is the same for everyone?
(113)
Franny says that she hates Prof. Tupper the most because he just stands there without
doing anything. What does that say about her character? (128)
What is the significance of the black mollies? (133)
Why does Zooey hate smilers? (136)
Why do Franny and Zooey think that desire (physical/spiritual) is wrong in all its forms?
(149)
What is the significance of the hill anecdote? (154)
What is the significance of the quotes and how do they connect to each other? (177)

Observations

Blending Zooeys biography with a mocking of Hollywood (parody of categorization)
description is clich after clich = frontier and James Bond (51)
Pus contrasted with beautiful body. Seymour is an enlightened, goodhearted person but
he had this mortal, dark thing inside, waiting to happen (Bananafish). Contrast between
sad things and happy things (which do you respond to?). Pus = mortality we have the
potential to be better, but we cant reach it. Dark humor can cry or laugh at the
absurdity of it. (62)
Satori = an epiphany. Children = have wisdom that adults have lost > no rules of
restriction that society (school) gives us. (63)
Religion = unlearn the difference between boys and girls (64)
Doesnt distinguish between animate and inanimate things (67)
Flesh, physicality, mortality anything about that is related to each other (104)
Sardonic, ironic mocking of pop culture = hipster mentality (I know art/poetry better than
you; I can see the world ironically and you cant) (118)
Living room = deteriorated, rough around the edges, family is surrounded by material
things, even if the members of the family think that they are above it. Living room chairs
= 4 comfortable ones for everyone who lives in the house (Bessie, Les, Zooey, and
Franny) and 8 uncomfortable ones for everyone else. (119)
Memorabilia = clutter and mess BUT also memories and nostalgia; turns the profane into
the spiritual; lifes transitions (120)
Family is in transition. Like Franny, who is now dealing with all of the changes and
traumatic events that happened after storing it all up for years (121)
Curtains = sunlight (reality/truth), which highlights all of the flaws, is blocked (122)
Hacking cough mocks the tragic Hollywood romance, in which the male protagonist
dies, leaving the tragic heroine behind. Prof = hypocrite. Water = baptism and rebirth
(Frannys is not succeeding, so she keeps doing it). Coffee brand is instant = doesnt
mean what she thinks it means; could also mean an awakening. (126)
Coffee = gold medal = materialism, enlightenment (Franny cant get it). Crowd jeers at
her. (127)
Frustration and inability to make the transition. Ritual is unable to be completed because
nobody is helping her even mocking her. (128)
Zooey is unable to respect the things he talks about. Mocks everything, even things he
likes. (133)
Dial tone = vibration of the universe. When Franny listens to it, she is finally in tune with
the universe. As the youngest, Franny has had the leadership of all the other members of
the Glass family. She will probably transcend the farthest. (202)