Mr. Luks

AP Literature and Composition

20 March 2005

A Rare Moment of Optimism in J.D. Salinger

After publishing The Catcher in the Rye in 1951 and Nine Stories in 1953, J.D. Salinger had thoroughly established his reputation as an author whose works were pessimistic, critical of society, and depressing. Though Franny and Zooey, published in 1955, continues Salinger's tendency to mock the often unspiritual quality of American society, these two short stories contain a keynote of optimism not found in his earlier work. In Franny and Zooey, Salinger further develops the fictional Glass family, his creation begun in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in Nine Stories. The protagonist from "Bananafish," Seymour Glass, is the eldest of the seven children of Les and Bessie Glass. He is extremely intelligent and spiritual, and deeply disturbed: he takes his own life because of a poor marriage and an inability to cope...