Re: Thoughts on Muriel and Impossibility

Brendan McKennedy (the.tourist@mailexcite.com)
Tue, 09 Dec 1997 07:40:40 -0700 

John writes:
> (though in Seymour's case I think the text does adopt an attitude
>about Muriel and her place in (and out of) the Glass world that is less
>than flattering to say the least.  I think it does laugh a bit at her. 

I'm not sure that the text really laughs at her...
I mean, that's always been my impression, but I'm not really sure anymore.  
The more I think about it, the more I think that Muriel is not portrayed so much
as an undesirable personality, but as a sort of ground to the cloudy Glass family.
 
I think it's very easy to get lost in the Eastern Philosophies and suicidal happiness
and whimsical child worship of the Glasses--not that any of those things are bad...If
I thought they were, I wouldn't be on this list.
But Muriel--and Zooey too--are sort of like a dose of the Real World, which may or
may not be superficial, since we all have to live in it (except, of course, Seymour,
who opted out).
I'm not sure that the text is laughing at Muriel--at least not in an important way.
 Of course you laugh at her when she says, "They look as if they drove down in a
TRUCK,"--but I think Muriel may have been Salinger's way to laugh at the Glass family...and
to sympathize with them from a view that is fixed, for better or for worse, right
here on Earth.

What's so amazing about Seymour and Muriel's relationship is that they stayed together--and
that despite everything, or rather everyONE (Glass siblings included), Muriel and
Seymour made each other happy.

Unfortunately, the happiness Seymour found in Muriel was only a very very small piece
of a very very huge universe.  
It says a lot for Muriel's depth that she stuck with Seymour through everything.
 With a Glass child--especially the Glass Buddha himself--there's no way you could
get by with mere amusement.  You have to really love a Glass to live with one.  


I think Muriel understood Seymour a lot more than the text gives her direct credit
for.  Of course Salinger knew it, and it may have been of minimal importance to him,
but it has always intrigued me.

Brendan





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