Franny fainting

Malcolm Lawrence (malcolm@wolfenet.com)
Sat, 06 Dec 1997 19:16:09 -0800

PODESTA,Lesley wrote:

> Gosh when I joined the list all we were talking about was whether Franny
> was pregnant!

When Zooey is explaining Way of a Pilgrim to Bessie he says: "Anyway, he starts
on his pilgrimage. And he has a problem. He's been reading the Bible all his
life, and he wants to know what it means when it says, in Thessalonians, 'Pray
without ceasing.' That one line keeps haunting him." Zooey reached for his
cigarette again. dragged on it, and then said "There's another similar line in
Timothy-- 'I will therefore that men pray everywhere.' And Christ himself, as a
matter of fact, says "Men ought always to pray and not to faint.'"

So Franny's fainting really doesn't have the slightest thing to do with any
physical malady she may have (let alone pregnancy), but is used so the reader
will know (when they come across this passage later on, in "Zooey") that even
though she is on the right spiritual path, she hasn't exactly got it down just
yet. At that point in the story she didn't know how to always pray without
fainting yet.

Malcolm