Re: ZOOEYCAM
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Wed, 24 Feb 1999 11:31:49 +1100
Pierrot65 wrote:
> Camille wrote of Catcher "... or rather that it ends and seems to begin
> again." I would agree if you mean that it is cyclical, that he has come
full-
> circle: like the snake eating its own tail, the symbol of the "wheel of
time,"
> or whatever, that he is standing still, forged no progress (ie.
> change/growth/decay, if you'll allow me to harp).
Well, if we look at it from a Zen point of view (which Salinger almost
certainly did) this is only partially true. Holden's epoch beside the
merry-go-round is certainly a revelation point in the book; it feels like
an `ending'. In Buddhism, the main portent is the belief that life is a
continuous cycle, and that the only way to find any peace is to liberate
yourself from this cycle - to admit that you have no control over it rather
than - as Holden does - trying to be the Catcher in the rye. His revelation
comes when he realises that the children must be allowed to jump for that
ring on the merry-go-round - itself a `cycle'. So perhaps the place that
Holden has reached by the end of the book can be equated to the path of a
spiral up a mountain - it seems the same but in actuality is just a little
higher up.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest