Salinger's Oasis Of Innocence: Character Analysis

A Man With All His F-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s Intact J.D. Salinger is an author with a complicated past of misogyny, pedophilia, and abusing his female spouses. Former lover of Salinger’s, though she prefers not to be remembered that way, and author, Joyce Maynard, has said, “The vision that emerges of Salinger’s relationships with women… is a bleak one, suggesting a man who spent his life fixated on a fantasy of youthful innocence while refusing to contend with the realities of day-to-day domestic love” (Dean). This point is supported very well not only by actions throughout his life, but in the way he wrote, from submissive female roles to encouraged hyper-masculinity. While likely not the first major theme die-hard Salinger fans would find in his writing, Salinger’s misogyny plays a very significant role in his literary expression, as well as …show more content…
Recognizing Salinger’s record with attraction to young or innocent girls and women, this could be seen as problematic. In Anne Marple’s essay, “Salinger’s Oasis of Innocence,” she describes how many of Salinger’s female characters appear to almost be asexual. When women in his works are sexual beings, this is often seen as a negative, almost “witchy.” Marple quotes William Wiegand who said, “Where object of delight is found in women, these women are often little girls or nuns, and what is admired is sexless in essence” (Marple). Salinger even addresses the issues of sex when he has one of the protagonists of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” a dissatisfied, newly wed woman, Muriel, reading an article titled, “Sex is Fun--or Hell” in the opening scene. In Gary Lane’s essay, “Seymour's Suicide Again: A New Reading of J. D. Salinger's 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” he states that,'“Muriel is basically simple--and basically corrupt” (Lane). Her role in comparison to her complex husband, Seymour Glass is one of