Essay On Franny And Zooey

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger is a book revolving around the members of an intellectual family, specifically, Franny and Zooey Glass.The book begins with Franny talking to her college boyfriend about how she is tired of phony people. After she expresses her interest in the “Jesus prayer”, she gets up to go to the restroom and faints. Franny later decides to go back to her childhood home. It is revealed that she had been crying and sleeping on the living room couch ever since the incident. Her mother, Bessie, wanted Zooey to find out what was wrong with Franny. He eventually talks to her and tells her of the “Fat Lady” concept that their older brother introduced. This brought Franny some peace of mind.
The Fat Lady was first introduced by Seymour when he was trying to motivate Zooey into shining his shoes before leaving to go on “It’s a Wise Child”. Zooey had believed that all the members that produced the show didn’t deserve his respect. Seymour

She wasn’t happy with the people and situations she’d often have around her. Everyone seemed to be egomaniacs which were always competing to have the most knowledge. She claimed “that knowledge - when it’s knowledge for knowledge’s sake, anyway - is the worst of all” (Salinger 145). The fact that she sees the competition around her makes her feel the need to be wary of her actions as to not contribute to this competition she hates so much. She sees herself as an outsider to the situation since she isn’t collecting intellectual treasure, but little does she know she’s still in a way still contributing. During the conversation Zooey has with Franny, he forcefully made Franny aware of her hypocrisy despite the fact she claimed to not want anything from the Jesus prayer. “You talk about piling up treasure - money, property, culture, knowledge, and so on and so on. In going ahead with the Jesus prayer [...] aren’t you trying to lay up some kind of treasure?” (Salinger