Salinger

Many critics consider J.D. Salinger a very controversial writer, for the

subject matters that he writes.. J.D. Salinger's works were generally

written during two time periods. The first time period was during World

War II, and the second time period was during the 1960's. Critics feel

that the works during the 1960 time period were very inappropriate,

because of the problems for which he wrote. The main characters were

generally misfits of society. In most of his works, he has the

protagonist of the story go on a quest for happiness. Salinger does not

conform to the material happiness; the characters undergo a spiritual

happiness. The characters generally start out as in bad conditions,

through the end of his works they undergone changes that change them for

the better. The works of J.D. Salinger show the quest for happiness

through religion, loneliness, and symbolism.

Salinger's works often use religion in order to portray comfort. In

Salinger's Nine Stories Franny Glass keeps reciting the "Jesus Prayer"

to cope with the suicide of her brother Seymour (Bloom in Bryfonski and

Senick 69). Salinger is able to use this prayer as a means of comfort

for Franny. The prayer stands for the last hope for Franny in this

situation. Franny would be lost if their was no prayer. (Bryfonski and

Senick 71). Salinger shows us comfort in Catcher in the Rye. Holden

Caufield, the protagonist, is very much in despair for losing his

girlfriend, so Caufield reads a passage in the Bible. This helps Holden

change his outlook on life (Salzberg 75). Holden was all alone at this

point and had no one to turn back on, until he found the Bible (Salzberg

76). In both stories the characters had found themselves in bad

situations. The characters in these works have obstacles which they must

overcome in order to achieve happiness (Salzman 34). Happiness is the !

very substance which all of these characters are striving for in

Salinger's works. Salinger uses religion in his works to comfort them so

that they can proceed on their quest to achieve happiness.

Salinger uses religion as a means for liberation. Salinger uses much of

the Zen philosophy, as in the case of Nine Stories, to achieve this

liberation (Madsen 93). In Nine Stories one of the characters, Seymour

Glass, is portrayed as Buddha in the sense that he wants to be liberated

as Buddha was in his life (Madsen 93). Seymour Glass in Nine Stories has a

certain philosophy about life, it is similar to the Eightfold Path used

by Buddha when achieving nirvana (French in Matuz 212). Seymour Glass is

on a quest to become free from all of the suffering in his life as Buddha

was from his life (French in Matuz 213). Seymour follows the Eightfold

path to become liberated from suffering (Madsen 96). Seymour achieves

"nirvana" by living a good life and end anything that causes suffering.

Seymour is able to attain nirvana by committing suicide (Lundquist in

Matuz 211). Salinger shows us that when Seymour committed suicide he let

go of all of the suffering that he encountered, !

thus attaining the happiness he longed for (French, Salinger Revisited

132). Salinger shows liberation as an end to all suffering, thus creating

happiness for the character. (French, Salinger Revisited 133).

The final function of religion as a means to attain happiness was to gain

peace In "The Young Lion," Salinger uses religion to gain peace through

a fictitious war. In the story many of the soldiers were dying and the

countries were in turmoil (Lundquist 312). The leaders in the story see a

vision on the battlefield that changes them, and stops the war (Lundquist

315). Salinger shows how religion can be a force used to create happiness

in a story, by creating peace (Lundquist 313). Salinger is able to use

religion as a means of attaining happiness through peace. The story

seemed very dismal, until religion intervened and stopped the conflict.

Salinger creates happiness for the characters by stopping the conflict.

In "The Stranger" Salinger creates peace through a war by using more of

the Zen philosophy. Salinger's creates a "Pact of Peace" which stops the

conflict between the Germans and Polish during WWII (Hamilton in Bryfonski

and Senick 143) . The "Pact of Peace" !

was a teaching used by Buddha in the Zen philosophy (Hamilton in Bryfonski

and Senick 143). Salinger uses Zen, in this case, to stop the conflict

between the Polish and Germans(Hamilton in Bryfonski and Senick 143). In

many of Salinger's