Franny and Zooey

Critical thinking question: Who has “power” in your text? How does that power get shown?

Enclosed within the world of Franny and Zooey, a novel by J.D. Salinger, lies the conflict of love, trust, power, sexism, and many, many more topics that combine to create the world of college students in the midst to figure themselves out. This book is divided into two sections: “Franny,” and “Zooey.” As I have just started the book, I am currently in the world of Franny as she picks her lover, Lane, up from the trainstation. They haven’t seen each other in quite a while now: in the beginning of the book, the author provides a few of the love letters Lane receives from Franny, and thus their gushy romance is exposed. Yet when they finally meet again, something feels very off with their relationship. Reading through the lens of the question of who has power in the text, I noticed problems revolving around social-class, sexism, trust, and hierarchy.

From the first page, it is clear to the reader that both Lane and Franny are young adults somewhat high on the typical “social-pyramid.” Lane attends a well-respected college, they both wear fairly high-end clothing, and both speak with a somewhat proper tone. Additionally, Lane has a slight disrespect for those not at his social level. For example, he thinks to himself, “[this is] a horrible [man] with a suspicious excess of curbside charity.” (Salinger 9). He also talks about a man he’d “let take that taxi away from him,” and by this he means it rightfully should have been his cab but he was generous enough to let another man take it. (Salinger 9). Although these small details may seem meaningless at first glance, Salinger includes them to build up the reader’s view of Lanes personality and take on the world.

There is quite evidently an aspect of not only gender equality, but of gender power. As this novel was written in the 1950s, men naturally had power of women. Men usually were the ones who worked, and women supported the men and were most commonly housewives. Yet there is a sense of rebellion in Franny and Zooey. It is the night Lane has arrived, and they are sitting together in a restaurant. However, something seems off with Franny, and Lane is clearly sensing something wrong. “‘I’m lousy today,’ she said. ‘I’m just way off today.’” (Salinger 16). Franny frantically to cover up her odd behavior, yet in a way that shows she is somewhat afraid of Lane. And Lane responds in a slyly rude way: “Lane looked at her, than exhaled a thin, overly expressive stream of smoke down at his plate.” (Salinger 24). He clearly begins to treat Franny in a very uncanny way, as if to show his status-quo above her. In summary, there is a slight sense of power over one another in the story.

Lastly, power always has to do with some sort of sly secrecy revolving on knowing the truth. Although I have not read enough to know if this is completely true or not, there must be some conflict between how Franny and Lane perceive themselves together and how it all plays out in reality. In the beginning, Lane is reading the love letters Franny has sent. It is full of gushy phrases like “[you are] my flower!,” “I love you,” “all my love,” and precisely 16 Xs when she signs it. It is evident that the two are, or at least Franny is, madly in love. But when they finally coincide, their relationship becomes full of dispute, disagreements, awkwardness, and unfamiliarity-which is odd to the reader as they initially seemed so close. In summary, there is an element of secrecy buried in to Franny and Lane’s relationship: not only as lovers, but as friends and two close persons.

In conclusion, Franny and Zooey is filled with so many topics to analyze, yet one is clear: power leads how the next moment plays out. Lane has a very high personal image of himself, they both are high on the social class ranking system, metaphorically speaking, and have secrecy within their open relationship. Yet they all come back to the same thing: the grasp of power, dominance, and rule. Although these issues make readers wonder about the characters, they were definitely included for a reason: to provide a story of truth reflecting on the true society of our world.