In a message dated 98-02-05 00:18:19 EST, you write: << I've read this email again because of the great topics brought up by Jim and AntiUtopia,and I was thinking,"Is there something wrong with living your whole life with the youthfulness of Zooey?"That book is fiction.Isn't that a frame of mind that we've all had?But we left it to stay in line.Couldn't you just be out of line and just be like that?I don't find anything really immature about Zooey.He just can't stand people.And a lot of the time I can't stand people either.But I appreciate the fat lady,and so does Jim,and I even think that AntiUtopia still might at times.Maybe a few people on this list can explain what I'm trying to ask? >> Ok, let's get our characters straight. I am AntiUtopia. My name is Jim. You are reading posts that are an interchange between myself and Scottie Bowman. So there :) I think both within Buddhism and Christianity we would be expected to outgrow Zooey's youthful intolerance. Salinger seemed to write within this context, and the very pressures of the story seem to point to a strong need in his central characters to overcome the pressures they experienced as a result of their youthful intolerance. And speaking as a 33 year old (ripe to be crucified :) ), looking back I see how self-righteous and narrow minded I was at 18-26, approx. I wasn't a bad or evil person. I am probably more so now. But my experience was limited, and even though I read extensively for years my view and understanding of truth was pretty narrow too. Don't get me wrong, I'm no relativist in morals or in ontology. But I have a wider vision now. And then I still hang about college aged people through my continued association with college. I see very intelligent kids with narrow, provincal attitudes. They may be self righteous about their Marxism, Feminism, Materialism, Postmodernism, Victimism, or Christianity, but they are still self righteous and narrow. It's just part of being young. We see Some things so clearly we forget there may be more we're not seeing. Then as we eventually see more, we learn... I see both Franny and Zooey's characters as being right around that age, and struggling with those issues. They are more advanced than I was. I didn't struggle. I was just an intolerant jerk. I still am in some ways. But I have grown enough to understand at least some things in retrospect--just a part of growing up. You post makes a great point, however. If we legitimately expect Franny and Zooey to grow into love of others regardless of their intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities, and be tolerant, shouldn't we extend the same to them in their struggles? I wonder if Salinger ever learned it works this way too? Jim