Re: suicide?

Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Sat, 17 Apr 1999 15:14:48 +1000 

I don't mean that Salinger believes Seymour *is* Christ anymore than I
believe he thinks Holden is Gautama Buddha - mirroring's one thing, *being*
is another. Salinger has, as we all know, a pretty polytheistic spiritual
view and takes elements from all over the place and combines them in a
quasi-spiritual, quasi-literary way. To me, his use of religious texts in
`Catcher' is little more than an aid in his creation of Catcher's moral
world and its structure. Seymour on the other hand is definitely some sort
of prophet; a family God to the Twelve Disciples of the Glass family.

The parallels you make to the Glass pantheon/canon and the Bible interest
me very much - after all, what is the Bible but, like the Glass stories, an
intersecting, occasionally contradictory and wildly disparate collection of
writings which combine to form a larger narrative. Also the specific bible
references , I think this is a potentially fruitful unmined seam of gold we
have here! I'm not so sure however that Seymour `chose' death - did Jesus
choose death? I guess ... yes and no. If he'd wanted to he could have
easily argued his way out of his death sentence. Still, Seymour seems to
act with an almost clinical sense of duty, so maybe you're right - and
maybe Buddy's seen need to immortalise him in writing because, to their
utter surprise, he didn't raise again three days later (:

Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest

Cecilia Baader wrote:
> 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*