Re: Estragon & Vladimir
Brendan McKennedy (suburbantourist@hotmail.com)
Sat, 21 Mar 1998 23:38:20 -0800 (PST)
>
>this reminded me of something that struck me in my last reading of
f&z--zooey
>always refers to bessie as fat, fatty, etc. is she the fat woman? and
if she
>is, might that open the door for some oedipal interpretations of
seymour's
>advice to zooey about the fat lady? just a few thoughts...matt
>
>
My own personal reading of Salinger brings me very close to the
conclusion that he was skeptical, sardonic--even derisive, if you listen
to Buddy--about psychoanalytic theory. He mentions Jung in particular
(In "Raise High"), but I don't think he'd be any more accepting of
Freud. I think Salinger has given his characters a sort of basic
existentialism--where they themselves are responsible for their actions,
their thoughts, their belief systems, and do not take closely into
account conditioning or, as Jung would have it, innate and perhaps
genetic motives.
Hmm...as I'm thinking about it, I could be wrong about Holden. He seems
to be a Product of His Environment, if you will (although I'd rather
not, to be honest). But the Glasses are certainly in control of their
own minds--or at least they think they are--or at least Buddy thinks
they think they are. It's all very convoluted, isn't it? My only
support for this rather spur-of-the-moment theory is Buddy's attitude
toward the Matron of Honor (In "Raise High" again) as she discusses
Seymour's latent homosexuality and his troubles being based on his young
life on the radio. Buddy is openly contemptuous toward this sort of
armchair analysis.
Brendan
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