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Nicole Matteson
English, Wright
Comets
December 15, 2015
New Historical Lense of
Franny and Zooey
Franny and Zooey
, written by J.D Salinger, was first published
separately in the 1950s-
Franny
in 1955 and
Zooey
in 1957- in the New
York Times. Then, this text was published in 1961 as a full novel and
was widely sold. What happened between 1955/1957 and 1961 to make
Franny and Zooey such a desireable text? The text is filled with
anti-conformist themes and hints at education dissatisfaction, which
directly mirrors many feelings held by people in the 1950s- 1960s.
By observing Franny and Zooey through a New Historical lense, specific
the Beat movement of the 1950s and Student movement of the 1960s
explain how Salingers novel found success and inspired America.
In the 1950s, the Beat movement was created to challenge
dominant culture. The TV homogenized America by creating shows that
seemed to fit the majority's interests, thus creating a dominant
culture. The dominant culture consisted of a happy and successful
American family whose offspring graduate from an esteemed University
to find a nine to five job and create a family like their own. In the
novel
Franny and Zooey
, Franny has issues with her stereotypical

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college boyfriend whose social life identically mimics the lives of

his peers and "societal norms.
Well, I don't know what they are
around here, but where I come from, a section man's a person that
takes over a class when the professor isn't there He's usually a
graduate student or something. Anyway, if it's a course in Russian
Literature, say, he comes in, in his little button-down-collar shirt
and striped tie Where I go, the English Department has about ten
little section men running around ruining things for people, and
they're all so brilliant they can hardly open their mouths pardon
the contradiction.(Salinger).
Yale boys in Franny and Zooey all look,
act, talk, and think the same, and the section man Franny describes to
her boyfriend holds all the qualities Franny hates about the education
system. Lane does not understand because he and his peers identifies
with the section man description, they all act and dress the same
their actions are completely predictable. The Beat movement created
films and books of unhappiness, directionless, and about people who
were lost to bring awareness of reality back to society. Franny and
Zooey Glass both question the dominant culture they are surrounded in,
thinking uniquely and philosophically. Franny specifically is
struggling with her adverse thoughts because she has a new theory on
religion based on a book she secretly reads. It's everybody, I mean.
Everything everybody does is so I don't know not wrong, or even

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mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and
sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something
crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different
way. (Salinger) She struggles because her thoughts dont match
societies and is worried about herself standing out and not being able
to connect with others because she simply disagrees with general
understanding; her pursuit to happiness was against the societal
norms. In the 1950s people wanted to pursue happiness but did it in
different ways. Beats wanted personal revelation, not social
revolution. Mass culture was not entirely affected and offended by the
counterculture, however the 1960s was when the counterculture began
to take mass action on their beliefs against population
generalization.
In the 1960s, students and young americans wanted to create a
new America and began to take action on conformity.
Dissatisfied with
american culture, student activists held demonstrations
across the
nation and experimented with lifestyle changes in the hope of inducing
fundamental change in American life. Zooey explains his
dissatisfaction with traditional education, which other american
students in the 1960s also shared identical ideals. What happened
was, I got the idea in my head and I could not get it out that
college was just one more dopey, inane place in the world dedicated to

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piling up treasure on earth and everything I don't think it would

have all got me quite so down if just once in a while just once in a
while there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication
that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn't, it's
just a disgusting waste of time! But there never is! You never even
hear any hints dropped on a campus that wisdom is supposed to be the
goal of knowledge. You hardly ever even hear the word 'wisdom'
mentioned!". (Salinger) Zooey claims that the education system does
not teach students to think for themselves, but rather to all think
the same. This is problematic because it creates a definite line
between people with college education and those who dont, and those
who lack university education are treated with less respect and are
viewed as lesser than the educated.
Perhaps other student activists
felt similarly and that is why they protested and demanded reform.
During the 1960s, thousands of young college students became
politically active.At the core of the student movement was a belief
in participatory democracy, or the idea that all Americans, not just a
small elite, should decide the major economic, political, and social
questions that shaped the nation. In a participatory democracy,
citizens would join together and work directly to achieve change at
the local level. The students hoped to give power to the people so
that they could fight for their own rights and for political and

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economic changes
.
(Source 3) The first issue to spark student
radicalism was the impersonality of the modern university, which many
students criticized for being too bureaucratic and formal. The youth
questioned university requirements, restrictions on student political
activities, and housing rules limiting the hours male and female
students could socialize. Restrictions on students handing out
political pamphlets on university property led to the first campus
demonstrations that broke out at the University of California at
Berkeley, and soon spread to other campuses.
While
Franny and Zooeywas published separately in the 1950s,
the book was published as a pair in 1961. J.D Salinger was perhaps
inspired by the Beat movement and this is why his main characters
seriously question societal conformity while also holding diverse
beliefs. The first publication of this text was read widely throughout
the end of the Beat movement and inspired the student activists of the
1960s, which created a high demand for the text, thus
Franny and
Zooeywas published together and found great success. Saligners
characters who were not a part of the general culture relate to the
socially dissatisfied members of the Beat movement who then inspired
the students of the next decade to take action on societal
generalization and the education system.

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Works Cited Page

1."Digital History."
Digital History
. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.
2.Huddleston, Diane M. "The Beat Movement: They Were Hipsters Not
Beatniks."
Digital Commons @ WOU
. Western Oregon University,
2012. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2015.
3."Protests in the 1960s."
Protests in the 1960s
. N.p., n.d. Web.
15 Dec. 2015.
4."Social Movements of the 1960s."
Social Movements of the 1960s
.
N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
5."
SPCH 4302 Notes."
SPCH 4302 Notes
. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2015