Re: Camille vs. Jim, round Three :)
rainswept@nwu.edu ("rainswept@nwu.edu")
Sun, 13 Sep 1998 09:40:34 -0500 (CDT)
On Sat, 12 Sep 1998, Jim Rovira wrote:
>
>
> >I've not been following this thread, even though it's probably my duty
> >to do so. By way of atonement then: remember my crackpot theory
> >about
> >Salinger wanting readers to think that Seymour is going to shoot
> >Muriel
> >just before he shoots himself? If I'm right--and I am--and if readers
> >don't generally think that Seymour was going to shoot Muriel--and they
> >don't--then the above point is spectacularly vindicated.
> >
> >--
> >Jimmy Delicious mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu
> >
>
> heh, ok, but do we have a reason to think Salinger intended that effect?
> I think Bananafish was the first Glass family story published, so imagine
> what you'd think if you read that story not knowing anything about
> Seymour but what was in it?
>
> Did Salinger say somewhere he intended that?
>
> Jim
I think that he DID intend the reader to think that Seymour was possibly
going to shoot Muriel before turning the gun on himself. The whole
discussion with Muriel and her Mother ...talking about Seymour and his
mental problems..the psychiatrist, the war, etc...Salinger obviously was
trying to convey the fact that this guy has some psychological problems
and is rather unstable. The way he foreshadows the scene..it really
appears that most people I know thought that Seymour was going to shoot
Muriel. To me, the way it seemed that Seymour was going to shoot her made
the world of difference. If this wasn't in the story, I truly don't
believe that the impact of the ending would have been as strong. I don't
think that th estory would have been quite as great as it is. Just my
opinion.
Lisa
>
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"You chose a giant step/Caught your eye/Guaranteed sweetness/That you
thought broken/And you were not fine..."
---Guided By Voices