Subject: Re: S
Smmrs@aol.com
Date: Mon Feb 28 2000 - 17:44:42 EST
In a message dated Mon, 28 Feb 2000 2:27:15 PM Eastern Standard Time, Pasha Paterson <gpaterso@richmond.edu> writes:
> At 13:04 02/28/00 EST, Smmrs@aol.com wrote:
> >The fact that Seymour had that gun in his bag all the time. That is, on
> the drive there, during the check-in etc. So he must of planned on this for
> a while.
>
> He might not have "planned" it this way, but certainly the impulse has been
> there for quite a while. Perhaps not even using the gun. Remember Muriel
> and her mother talking cryptically about how Seymour apparently drove their
> car into a tree. Makes ya wonder.
>
> >I am still analyzing the glance that Seymour gives to the sleeping Muriel
> before he commits suicide. Is it contemp? Sympathy? Sorrow? I just dont know
>
> There are as many possible interpretations of that look as there are
> Salinger readers. Of course, being Salinger, he gives us absolutely no
> clue of Seymour's expression. Was he crying? Was he snarling? Was he
> totally expressionless, as we imagine Teddy might have been? Any of these
> drags with it a whole mess of implications.
>
> Another possible interpretation is that he at least cares enough to look at
> her when he "leaves". Sybil runs away from him "without regret." The girl
> in the elevator storms out "without looking back." At the very least,
> when Seymour leaves someone he can no longer deal with, he cares enough to
> look 'em in the eye. It's a simplistic sort of view, but it could have
> important suggestions into Seymour's character.
>
> Under this view, Seymour's look is one of a disappointed, disillusioned
> teacher. Seymour and Buddy spent their childhood teaching their younger
> siblings about...well...whatever you want to say they were teaching.
> Muriel represents Seymour's first large-scale attempt to do the same with
> someone outside the Glass family. Clearly, he fails, and Muriel is still
> as airheaded as the day they met. I am slowly warming up to the idea
> (presented about a year ago, in a discussion of Muriel) that Seymour's
> simpleminded wife is not as detrimental a force as I thought. Sure, she's
> more concerned with polishing her nails than answering the phone, and more
> concerned with sleeping than spending time on the beach with her husband,
> but she is just a girl living her life and not really caring about anything
> deep or meaningful or spiritual. Her life is effortless, and she will not
> raise that effort level to accomodate Seymour's demanding regimen of
> quasiBuddhist dogma.
>
> Seymour, sitting on the opposite bed, looking at his wife, sees the same
> potential that he must have seen when he married her, but, feeling utterly
> defeated as a teacher, has resigned himself to failure. He probably still
> loves Muriel, and so he looks back at her, possibly with a bit of contempt,
> but mostly with a look of disappointed love. "Poor girl, she never
> understood, she never grew." And then bang.
>
> This view is still only half-baked, but it's an interesting take on the
> ending that I just came up with on rereading. (Yeah, so I reread it just
> to post. I'm quick at it by now.)
Very interesting post. I never viewed Muriel as a "project" of Seymour's but you m,ight be ont something. After all he gave her his precious book (It was in German I believe). He is frank, open and sincere. From his dead cat answer to his question to Muriel's grandmother about her plans after she dies.
Curiously, I have always found Seymour's answer to Sybil's question very important. I think she aks him "wheres your lady?" He answers with indignation.
Fedder-BAH
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