:helena and john: i agree with you wholeheartedly. i myself am also a youngin born on 3/6/79 but i think alot of this and even the pregnant franny stuff hooks with the autotelic self that mihaly csikszentmilhalyi put forward. i dont know if it is better to have a cause to get behind or to have the inward goals that ...well that guy with the really long name that i had to look up to spell said. there is a lot of trash going on lately though especially here in america because everywhere you turn someone is trying to get dirt on someone. although in some cases it is a little justified,...but...more often than not it goes too far. i dont know if we as a generation have been given the gip or not..hmmm. (1) How much do we act out Salinger characters in our own lives, and find >>pleasure in little happenings, say, checkers, or feet in elevators? > i often catch myself looking at peoples feet in elevators to see if they will notice what i am doing. only one time did someone speak about it and he knew the story! < not a whole lot of things in life make sense. but it is true that a spritual crisis may cause physical distress, but i dont think that that is what is all that is implied here. i think that with all of this going on about sprituality and inner being, it is almost like there needs to be a link back to the physical, a reminder of grounding on earth. if franny gets too introspective she will lose her rather sharp and correct point of view. i think that salinger may have brought in soem ambiguious (sp?) physical problems to remind franny that she is Here and she cant just torture herself. she has to try to apply her need for spirituality to her life or its useless. >> That's pretty good...umm...whoever you are :) I didn't see a name at the bottom of the post, but I may be going blind. But I like what you said. I think it is important for Franny to remember that she is "here" and not elsewhere, and I think that's an important component of her inner struggle. Jim sorry that was me. i think i forgot to sign off. oh well. it was just me the new girl...chrissy @ cmsu