Re: Salinger's world
erespess@inil.com
Wed, 11 Aug 1999 12:37:51 -0400
>my feeling on this is that if salinger had implied that his characters
>somehow had it worse than everyone else because of their "real" problems,
>then his writing would seem superficial and self-indulgent. personally
>though, i have never gotten the feeling that salinger intended to portray
>his characters in that light. they seem to be concerned with their own
>difficulties, but not above others' difficulties. i have not read much of
>salinger's work outside of his widely published books, so if his work
>published in magazines did lean in that direction, i haven't read it.
>
>elizabeth
yes, i am responding to my own post - i just thought of something else.
when i first read the glass family stories, i had only spent one week in
new york to attend a conference which i was lucky enough to have a
scholarship to attend because i was a performer there. i spent the
majority of the time in rehearsals. my family was far from rich. we had
enough money to eat, so i certainly wouldn't complain about our lack of
wealth. i say this to point out that i had no idea what neighborhood the
glasses lived in and any references to their social standing went over my
head, not being anything i related to. however, as child raised smack dab
in the middle of the bible belt by a baha'i mother and a unitarian father,
i related and indeed was very drawn to their struggles with spiritual
identity. i didn't know the glasses had money until after i joined this
list. i wonder how much this may have colored my reading of franny & zooey?
elizabeth