Franny and Zooey | Literary Precedents

Franny and Zooey Literary Precedents

Salinger is clearly influence by "lost generation" novelists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. As Fitzgerald's characters were accomplished in repartee, so are Salinger's. Where The Great Gatsby's narrator Nick claims a predilection for telling the truth (1925; see separate entry), so does Salinger's narrator, Buddy. In his omniscience as an unseen narrator who knows all, Buddy's view parallels that of Dr.

Eckleberg's huge optometric-advertisement for glasses that are symbolic of God and which oversee all the events occurring in The Great Gatsby, . Salinger's fondness for his self-involved characters, and his lack of apology for their larger-thanlife egos, also parallels that of Fitzgerald toward his flamboyant, high-society players. Naturally, as a member of the postLost Generation, Salinger does not share all of Fitzgerald's concerns, but concerns for the individual person's self-realization exist in works by both authors.