Subject: Re: An ocean full of bocce balls
jason@smartwentcrazy.com
Date: Fri May 03 2002 - 05:56:41 EDT
I tend to agree with the theory of Nine Stories representing the various stages of enlightenment. And with Seymour at the beginning and ending with Teddy, as enlightened as it most assuredly gets, we need not necessarily assume that Seymour is not close to enlightenment since Teddy is. We should, perhaps, consider that we are looking at a cyclic series of stories with both Seymour and Teddy representing the same point in the circle.
Or not.
Solid handshakes,
Jason
----- Original Message -----
From: ErsatzAzalea@aol.com
To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 3:51 PM
Subject: Re: An ocean full of bocce balls
In a message dated 5/2/2002 2:45:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, mbombard@middlebury.edu writes:
I think that the main characters of each story,
beginning with Seymour and ending with Teddy, are at various stages of
enlightenment, Teddy having reached enlightenment, and at the end of the
story escaping the birth/death/re-birth cycle
I disagree, if you are implying that Seymour is not close to enlightenment. In "Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenters," he is made out to be one of the most enlightened characters in Salinger's published stories... aside from Teddy. But then again, Buddy Glass said that he wrote the story for Seymour, but when the rest of the Glass's read it they said that the character in Bananafish wasn't Seymour but Buddy himself, who seems to be at a lower level as far as spiritual development goes. So maybe you're right. Feedback?
~Melanie
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