Re: 'It's a cold world...'
Peggy F. Jean-Louis (pfj6868@is.nyu.edu)
Mon, 01 Dec 1997 12:43:57 -0500 (EST)
This story reminds me of a line in "F&Z" where Buddy says that Zooey is
the only one who was still bitter about Seymour's suicide but that he was
the only one who had forgiven him for it. I wondered about that quite a
bit, they seemed incompatible to me at first. But I finally decided that
what Buddy meant was that Zooey had dealt with Seymour's suicide in the
healthiest possible way. He had let Seymour go in a way that the others
hadn't, especially Franny - Seymour was who she wanted to talk to, and
Buddy - who was obsessed with writing about him.
In a way, those townspeople are still trying to hold on to these
two boys by blaming, being angry and unforgiving towards Jenny.
I thought it was an interesting parallel.
Peggy