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Quote by J. D. Salinger

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franny and zooey

J.D. Salinger's narrative delves into the complex emotional and psychological journeys of the Glass family, particularly focusing on the spiritual awakening of Franny and the struggles of Zooey to find his own path in life. more

Author

J. D. Salinger
J. D. Salinger

J. D. Salinger was an American writer renowned for his reclusive personality and his seminal novel, 'The Catcher in the Rye'. Born on January 1, 1919, Salinger lived much of his life in seclusion, rarely engaging with the public. His novel, published in 1951, became an instant classic and a cornerstone of American literature. Salinger's writing is characterized by its introspective and complex depiction of teenage alienation and angst. more

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“I submit that Zooey's face was close to being a wholly beautiful face. As such, it was of course vulnerable to the same variety of glibly undaunted and usually specious evaluations that any legitimate art object is. I think it just remains to be said that any one of a hundred everyday menaces — a car accident, a head cold, a lie before breakfast — could have disfigured or coarsened his bounteous good looks in a day or a second.”

“There is not much talking now. A silence falls upon them all. This is no time to talk of hedges and fields, or the beauties of any country. Sadness and fear and hate, how they well up in the heart and mind, whenever one opens pages of these messengers of doom. Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end. The sun pours down on the earth, on the lovely land that man cannot enjoy. He knows only the fear of his heart.”

“I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.”

“I let my head fall back, and I gazed into the Eternal Blue Sky. It was morning. Some of the sky was yellow, some the softest blue. One small cloud scuttled along. Strange how everything below can be such death and chaos and pain while above the sky is peace, sweet blue gentleness. I heard a shaman say once, the Ancestors want our souls to be like the blue sky.”