Live With Salinger example essay topic

J.D. Salinger could be considered one of the greatest, and most authors of our time. We only know limited things about him and his work. He has been pushed off into the woods due to betrayal by his loved ones, and people close to him. Negative criticism of his work has also contributed to making him leave.

Not to mention the biggest factor which made him want to be left alone, phoniness. These are the reasons that I believe why he wants to be left alone and not give interviews, this is also what fuels the press to keep chasing after J.D. To give a brief biography of what J.D. did up until his name was heard of, here's how it all started. In 1934 J.D.'s father (Sol) enrolled him in Valley Forge Military Academy (Hamilton 18). After that in 1937 he went to Vienna and Poland briefly with his father to learn about the cheese and ham importing business (French 1). In 1938 he then went to Ursinus College in Pennsylvania where he wrote movie reviews in the college paper (French x ). After this he was drafted to the army in 1942, and then discharged in 1945 (French x ).

His first book was then published six years later in 1951 (French xiv). I think that the most important and interesting factors of Salinger life happened after 1951 with the publishing of Catcher in the Rye. It wasn't until this point in the writers life that he really started to feel the all the criticism rush in. This is what I feel, along with all the deception that started to come in convinced him to move to Cornish, New Hampshire only two years after the book was published (CLC 1421). Everyone wanted to talk to the man who wanted to talk to no one. Salinger has now lived in Cornish for almost 42 years (CA 1572), and I feel that all the fiction that he's written gives us hints why he lives there, not wanting to be bothered.

In the interview given by Herriges, Salinger tells him "Well, I don't know what else I can tell you. Everything I have to say is in my fiction". (129). This statement leads me to believe the some of Salinger's characters are autobiographical, and there views are actually how he feels towards the world that we live in.

I think that the main thing that is illustrated by his use of putting his feeling in his characters, is his dislike toward phoniness. In his second published book Franny and Zooey, Franny has a nervous breakdown that is believed to be caused by her not being able to take all of the phoniness around her. Franny states "I'm just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else's. I'm sick of everybody that wants to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It's disgusting -it is, it is.

I don't care what anybody says" (Salinger 29-30). Along with Franny another one of Salinger's characters (probably his most well known) Holden Caulfield has the same set of views. He also would like to abolish all of the phonies out there. While reading any work by Salinger I think that he is trying to get you to look beneath just what you see on the surface, past looks, and money. After the Herriges interview he says that the first two passages that came into his mind where from A Perfect Day for Banana fish, and Zooey (129). In both of these stories the characters talk of not wanting physical aspects to be looked at.

This is what I believe what Salinger is trying to do, get us to look at a person from the inside, who they really are. Again, in the Eppes interview he tells her that about why he doesn't give autographs. He feels that they are meaningless, and that no author with respect gives them out (234). These are some of the reasons I feel that Salinger retreated to the woods, because these things happening in today's society. Money and looks are what seem to matter these days. Again the quote that Salinger gives Herriges about how everything being in his fiction gives us clues about his departure from society into the woods.

In Zooey, Salinger is comparable to Buddy Glass in the way he lives, and the way people are always trying to contact him and are unable. In Zooey Mrs. Glass says, "Sometimes I could almost murder Buddy for not having a phone", she said. "It's so unnecessary. How can a grown man live like that- no phone, no anything?

No one has any desire to invade his privacy, if that's what he wants, but I certainly don't think it's necessary to live like a hermit" (Salinger 77). This book was published after Salinger decided to move to the woods, and if you look at Salinger like Buddy Glass you can see how comparable they are. Buddy has even been compared as Salinger's alter-ego (CA 1575), because of how much they are alike. Everyone wants to talk to Salinger, and all Salinger wants to do is be left alone, just like Buddy Glass.

The negative things that were being said about Salinger's book didn't make him want to keep on living is such a place. His book was banned from schools, claiming that it was unsuitable. Some even blamed the assassination of John Lennon on The Catcher in the Rye (Icke 1). The day that Lennon was killed by Mark Chapman, he walked through New York taking the same route that Holden did. When he was later arrested the book was found in his pocket, and he was also shouting about how Lennon was a phony (Icke 2). PUT CATCHER IN THE RYE QUOTE HERE!!

After Salinger had been living in the woods for a while and refusing interviews people that personally knew him got an idea. Why not cash in off this guy? That's exactly what they did, everyone from friends to loved ones started betraying him. Everyone from fans to reporters would come and try and get interviews and pictures of the author.

People would even take pictures of the author when he wasn't even aware that he was being watched. Eppes talks of driving around the area where he picks up his mail asking questions about him, and finding out when he would be around (230-234). I see why Salinger would get so sick of this, you could get a kind of every feeling not knowing if your always being watched. In 1972 Joyce Maynard dropped out of Yale at the age of 18 to go and live with Salinger (Trainor 1).

She seems to have no problem telling Trainor about the strange eating habits that Salinger has during a interview (1). She has even recently gone on to put 14 love letters that Salinger wrote to her between 72-73 on New York's Sotheby's auction (Applebome 1). This deeply digs into Salinger's privacy, and I would even think this could be considered as a case of "phoniness" in the attempt to make some money. In a interview she even states that she's had 20 years of financial stress and needs the money (Lavin 2). Even several friends that have been to his house claim that there is a large safe were J.D. keeps novels that have yet to been published (Brooks 3). Jonathan Schwarz claims that his girlfriend pretended that her car broke down just so she could sleep at Salinger's house, and she says she also saw the safe (Brooks 3).

That seems low to me, an ex-lover trading you in for money. Salinger's betrayal doesn't stop there though... it only gets worse. His daughter (Margaret Salinger) has recently decided to sell him out as well. In 2000 J.D.'s daughter published a book called Dream Catcher were she gives her version of living with Salinger, and tells things that most would consider private (Smith 1). The book reveals things that were previously unknown about J.D., talking about his fears of the female body to about how he used to drink urine as a home remedy (Smith 1).

Salinger seems to want as little of his life to be unknown as possible, and tries to have books, and biographies not be made about him. In 1987 he won a legal battle blocking author Ian Hamilton from publishing a biography about him, Salinger claimed that quoted and paraphrased without his permission (Clinton 1). Another problem was that Hamilton was trying to quote unpublished letters of Salinger (Gold 1). It took Hamilton over 5 years to get his biography on Salinger just right so he could legally publish it without any problems (Hamilton 8-13). All of these things pushed Salinger into the woods, but I couldn't see him coming out of the woods anytime soon.

He left society to get away from it all and things seem to have only gotten worse. He doesn't want to be bothered by people, yet they are constantly coming to Cornish looking for him. Can you imagine what it would be like if he lived in heavily populated city, the media would be pounding down his door! I feel like I understand why he doesn't want to talk to the media, it seems to represent everything that he is against. Reporters are just trying to get their jobs done, most of them that try to come to J.D.'s house probably don't really even care about him. They are just trying to get a big story to boost their career.