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Essay / Analysis of Salinger's Franny and Zooey: A Difficult Task to Be Independent
In his novel Franny and Zooey, Salinger effectively depicts the troubled lifestyles of the Glass family, particularly those of Franny and Zooey, the two most young children Glass. These two characters were raised with an education that promoted religious knowledge and awareness while being featured on a radio show called "He's a Wise Kid." While participating in this show's panel, their older brother Seymour advises them to always be the best version of themselves for the "Fat Lady" (Salinger 201): an anonymous, unidentified woman who existed in the mind of the Glass family. This woman represents all of humanity and its traits, actions, and beliefs to Franny and Zooey. The symbol of the fat lady, while promoting equal respect for all humans, represents a difficult lifestyle to follow due to humanity's natural tendency to conform, its innate competition, and ultimate indifference of the universe towards him. It is clear from people who live in our society that there is a pervasive sense of conformity: the incessant desire to achieve the standards and goals set by the most popular people in society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Franny herself feels this strong need to conform to what society tells her to believe, how she should act, and even what she should make of herself. life; this behavior is particularly apparent when she is with her boyfriend Lane. Respecting the traditional relationship they live in, Lane appears to be the dominant, masculine figure with a slight detachment from his significant other, while Franny wears the figurative mask of a loving, compassionate and loyal girlfriend. Ironically, these two characters they are trying to portray betray their true feelings towards each other; Lane feels an unusually strong attraction to Franny that is evident in the "groomed, unfresh look" (Salinger 4) of the letter she sent him, while Franny even admits that when she expresses how Lane has missed, “the words were not out sooner”. that she realized she didn’t mean them at all” (Salinger 10). This detached relationship serves as a stark example of how humans—as described by Franny and Lane—continually find many of their decisions dictated by the norms and traditions of society and others around them. Although the Glass family may not resemble a traditional family at all, they - like all other humans - demonstrate conformity by letting society's ideals influence their character and actions. Franny and Zooey, in particular, use religion and the beliefs and traditions of ideologies around the world as a different society that they can conform to, giving them the comforting feeling that they are not transforming themselves based on this. what their society wants, but instead become certain. idea of independence or insensitive to societal norms. This tendency of Franny and Zooey to be so aware and use examples from Eastern religion comes from their brothers' idea of raising them with an education of "everything we knew about men - the saints, the arhats, the bodhisattvas, the jivanmuktas.” – who knew something or everything about this state of being” (Salinger 65-66). In fact, this meant giving them an education that favored wisdom rather than knowledge. By trying to move away from societal norms, they simply conform to a different set of ideas and are no morecloser to true individuality than before. Likewise, they continue to conform by letting society influence their actions and beliefs. The little green book that Franny carries is a symbol of this idea that conformity outside of their society is still conformity, and as Zooey reflects, this book "is at the root of this whole thing" (Salinger 96). Humanity's incessant need to conform to society stems from a part of human nature—a nature that fears being excluded and separated from society. So it is this need to conform that makes it so difficult to follow the advice given when trying to please the Fat Lady. In trying to be the best a person can be for everyone, including themselves, it will - relative to the number of people who fail to do so - go against the actions and traditional beliefs established by society and creates a discouraging feeling of disunity with society. For many people, actions are determined by their thirst for approval from those around them and for reward in one form or another and therefore, a feeling of competition arises from this idea of a need for applause. Franny thinks she is "just sick of ego, ego, ego" (Salinger 29) because she feels like the people around her aren't acting according to their true desires of life, but according to goals determined by their ego and seek to receive approval. and a sort of reward for everything they do. Franny's awareness of these people who live their lives hoping for approval from friends, family, and even strangers around them comes from her own ego and the competition she feels when she's trying to live her life. Growing up on the radio show "She's a Good Kid," Franny did much of what she did as a child in an attempt to please the Fat Lady who only lived in her mind . This need to do it for the Fat Lady - or humanity - was difficult for Franny to achieve because she felt an innate need to compete and be better than those around her, until she realizes it was caused by her ego, at which point she's "I'm not afraid to compete." It’s quite the opposite” (Salinger 30) since she wishes to have “the courage to be absolutely nobody” (Salinger 30). Previously, it was competition and Franny's ego that had driven her to become involved in theater, and her realization of this fact pushed her away from it. All humans are tormented by this need to be better than their peers, which makes any hope of improving humanity's society as a whole so difficult. The idea of a universe completely indifferent to human affairs is controversial in Franny and Zooey due to the religious upbringing of the two main characters, which is strongly supported by the idea of a higher power and religious importance. The novel is particularly evident through Buddy and Seymour's idea of beginning the education of their siblings not "with a quest for knowledge but with a quest, as Zen would put it, for non-knowledge" (Salinger 65) as well as by Franny's obsession with Experimenting with the saying "in the Bible when it says you should pray without ceasing" (Salinger 33). Although the idea that religion is necessary to remain in touch with a meaningful relationship with the universe in order to maintain some validity is obvious, it is not explicitly mentioned in any quotes. Losing faith in one's religion obviously causes a person to question what they believe to be true. For Franny, a person raised in the knowledge of beliefs, traditions and norms..