Re: suicide?

Baader, Cecilia (cbaader@casecorp.com)
Fri, 16 Apr 1999 12:35:15 -0500 

Wow,  Seymour-as-Christ.  I agree, that is a pretty high ground for Salinger
to take.  And I *want* to reject it out of hand. And because there's a
million and one reasons that I want to reject it,  I decided to argue for
it. (I do this sometimes for fun.)  Because if Holden's actions can mirror
those of the Buddha, why can't Seymour's mirror those of Christ?  

So then I began to list for myself the different ways that the Christ
symbolism manifests itself:

 - First, the obvious:  Seymour the Carpenter.  It's struck me more than one
time that the Glass family doesn't necessarily have a single, specific
religion.  They refer less to sacred works than they do to Seymour.  Seymour
spent his whole life teaching - and Buddy makes it his mission to record as
much of it as he can.  (The Gospel according to Buddy....  the First Letter
of Buddy to Zachary...  I'm making myself sick.)  However, it's almost like
Seymour spent his life building something, and his family members spend the
rest of theirs trying to live up to his example.

 - Next, Seymour and the Children.  I've always rejected the pedophilia
argument out of hand for the simple reason that Seymour's attraction to
children has always been, to me, what he could teach them.  Children are
easy to teach and nearly every interaction that I can think of with them has
been in a situation where Seymour has had something to teach.  Christ loved
children, so did Seymour.

 - Muriel Magdalene.  Really.  Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948.  Seymour loved
her for her simplicity, though the rest of the Glass family didn't
understand the attraction.  The only thing for which anyone denigrates
Seymour is what makes him who he is.  Seymour's Golden Rule?  Everyone is
the fat lady, even Muriel.  

 - Agony in the Mental Ward.  Seymour broke down not long before he commits
suicide but soon comes to terms with it and releases himself from his own
mind.  When he dies, he calmly and happily goes to his death with no outward
qualms.

 - Willingly choosing death over life.  Seymour spent his life teaching,
building, and when his work was done, he went on to the next life.  As a
child, he predicted that his time on earth would be short and he worried
that he wouldn't be able to get everything in.  (The last minutes of his
life are spent teaching yet another child yet another lesson.)  But his work
was done, and it was time to move on.  There's not the sacrifice that Christ
had, but perhaps turning Seymour's death into a suicide brings Christ's
death down to its most basic level.

Hmmmm...  it's just a thought anyway.  

Cecilia.

P.S.  Thanks for the compliment, Camille.  I hope that I can live up to it.
*grin*

> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 19:17:58 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Camille Scaysbrook <the_globe@hotmail.com>
> To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
> Subject: Re: suicide?
> 
> A similar thing occured to me recently when I decided, seeing it was 
> Easter, to read the interpretations of the death of Jesus in the four 
> different gospels. It made me feel the same way when Matthew and John 
> seemed to portray Jesus as saying or doing certain things 
> *specifically* so that certain prophecies and scriptures would come 
> true. Obviously, His death was preordained, but somehow it seemed to 
> rob the whole thing of a certain humanity; He just seemed to be going 
> through the motions, whereas in Mark's gospel you can feel His 
> torment when He says `Oh God why have you forsaken me?'. I think 
> you're reacting to a similar thing in Teddy and Seymour. Seymour's 
> suicide is enacted with all the coolness and calmness of taking a 
> train ride, there's no anguish in his decision. Perhaps this is why 
> it is in some ways hard to mourn for him. You could even argue that 
> the Glasses miss the *idea* of Seymour more than they miss Seymour 
> himself. (hey there's an idea - is Seymour just an idea? Like the 
> nonexistent son in `Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'). If Salinger is 
> implying that Seymour and Teddy are on a spiritual and therefore 
> prescient par with Jesus - well, that's pretty high ground to take (:
> 
> P.S. Cecilia, it's a sin that this is your first post! I wanna hear 
> more! (:
> 
> Camille
>