Re: Seymour's death

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> > And this begs the question: could the story have ended some other way?
> > Could the last paragraph been substituted by, for instance, Seymour
killing
> > Muriel instead?  

But then again, by killing off the character who was to occupy him (we
assume) for the next thirty years, Salinger has something very important -
a ready-made saint. Everything about Seymour is given the gloss of
nostalgia; there isn't a need to make him `real' as such, but a symbol for
all of the Glass family to aspire to. You could call Seymour the most
frequently absent main character in literature (:

Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest

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