J. D. Salinger's Franny And Zooey

In “Franny and Zooey” by J.D Salinger, Franny Glass is a main character who has many issues with people around her and herself. Franny tries to deal with these problems by following the teachings of her 2 oldest brothers and breaks down. The rest of the story is about her trying to find her way and her brother Zooey substantially helps with this. Before Zooey is introduced we get to spend some time with Buddy, who states that this story is not a religious story at all, even though much of the dialogue concerns itself with religious topics, but “a love story pure and complicated.” This holds true for the entirety of the story.
When we first get introduced to Lane, we see him reading a letter from Franny that he has clearly read more than once as “It had a handled, unfresh look, as if it had been taken out of its envelope and read several times”(3). Lane is showing that he does care for and love Franny at this point, even though later on in the book Lane shows how he mostly only cares about his appearance to others. Franny also doesn’t truly love Lane as he is the kind of person she despises and has to act like she loves him and this confliction is one problem that causes her breakdown. Franny even quits …show more content…
Zooey is reading the letter multiple times for the sake of Franny as he is referring to it so he can help his sister find her way from the mental breakdown she had. Zooey shows his love for his sister this way and throughout most of the book as he is the main person to help Franny through her crisis even though he is represented as a very cynical and sarcastic person. This is how by how Zooey points out what is causing Franny’s crisis and her hypocrisy to Franny harshly enough to cause her to cry and tries pretending to be Buddy as a last resort to help Franny. Zooey’s determination to help Franny shows his love for his family even if he does not act like a nice