Subject: Re: Reference to JDS by Paul Thomas Anderson
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Tue May 07 2002 - 09:33:18 EDT
I get the impression that Salinger tried to use the Caulfield family the
same way he wound up using the Glass family, but got backed into a corner
and had to start over (with the Glasses).
Holden's family had an older brother who died/killed himself in "Ocean Full
of Bowling Balls," leaving the rest of the family (two brothers and their
parents at that point, really...I think Phoebe would have been too young to
notice, if she had been born) to deal with it.
So HC's family was left with DB, who wound up a sold out Hollywood writer,
Holden, who had his own problems, and Phoebe, who wasn't in a position to
be sufficiently old enough to be properly disturbed. I can't see Phoebe
having a Franny Like breakdown.
So I think Salinger kinda painted himself into a corner with the
Caulfields, so abandoned them and ran with the Glasses. I need to look at
the chronology of the stories to really work this out, but I suspect
Salinger wasn't sure himself why Seymour committed suicide, and wanted
Buddy to figure it out for him. The Glass family so took over Salinger's
fiction that in S:AI Buddy even makes an oblique reference to Catcher as a
novel that he had written....
Jim
Will Hochman wrote:
>
> Micaela, I agree with you. Catcher seems to be a separate Salinger
> world and portrays conflicts that are more typical than the world
> inhabited by the Glass family. I think adolescent readers and young
> adults find Catcher and begin to "ramp up" to some of the more
> complex challenges of Franny and Seymour. I don't think there's a
> smooth progression from Catcher to Glass family though. I think it
> takes a certain affinity with spiritual issues to make the
> transition. Readers can build spiritual insights with Holden, but
> they aren't as pronounced or as complex as what those Glass folks
> make us think about...yes, I think your insight today is very
> true...thanks, will
> --
> Will Hochman
>
> Associate Professor of English
> Southern Connecticut State University
> 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515
> 203 392 5024
>
> http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html
>
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