Re: Seymour's death
J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Mon, 16 Nov 1998 20:47:59 -0500 (EST)
I don't know about the question itself. Could the story have ended some
other way? Of course. Seymour could have killed Muriel, gone on a
killing spree, and wiped out those young children he played with too.
But then it would be a different Seymour and a different story. It's
like asking, Could Salinger have written a different story? Well, the
answer is always, Yes. But he didn't.
So I guess I don't understand the question here :)
Jim
On Tue, 17 Nov 1998 10:50:18 +1100 Camille Scaysbrook
<verona_beach@geocities.com> writes:
>
>> > 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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