JD Salinger's novel Franny and Zooey features various members of the Glass family, and although the two stories were originally published independently, one cannot ignore their combined meaning. Seven years after the suicide of their older brother Seymour, the family's two youngest members, Franny and Zooey, continue to struggle with their brother's death, unable to understand his life lessons. Franny and Zooey tells the story of Franny, a promising future actress, at her wits' end in pursuit of the spiritual enlightenment her brother described to her when she was a young child. While most readers believe the text argues for a definition of ego as a negative manifestation of materialism, which parallels Franny's initial understanding of the word, through Zooey's redefinition of the term when her confrontation with her mentally unstable sister makes it clear that Franny's understanding of the ego. is distorted and distances her from the enlightenment she seeks. This is important because it highlights the intertwined importance of duty in life as well as ego and how they are both necessary to please the higher spiritual powers. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The youngest of the seven Glass children, Franny Glass struggles to find meaning and purpose in her life. From childhood, she was introduced to Eastern philosophy by her older brothers, Seymour and Buddy. Unlike their own educational experiences, the two boys wanted their younger siblings to "both know who and what Jesus, Gautama, Lao-tzu and Shankaracharya...were before [Franny and Zooey] knew too much or anything either on Homer, Shakespeare or even Blake or Whitman, not to mention George Washington and his cherry tree or the definition of a peninsula or how to analyze a sentence (30). Because of the hasty introduction of these spiritual ideas, it is easy to understand why Franny places so much emphasis on finding spiritual resolution in her life. This understanding of her childhood explains the drastic measures she takes, the impulsive decisions she makes, and her mental fragility throughout the first part of the novel, aptly titled Franny. As readers, we see that in an effort to achieve the enlightenment her brothers spoke of, she abandons her promising acting training and turns to a curious green book called A Pilgrim's Path (18). This seems to be the only comfort in Franny's world as she seeks to understand the evil that torments the world around her. Jesus' prayer, buried between the pages of the pilgrim's book, brings comfort and hope with the idea that enough repetition will lead her to see the face of God, even if she does not believe the words that come from his lips . Frustrated with everyone around her and the inability of prayer to bring her peace, she collapses during her date with her boyfriend, Lane Coutell. Between her frequent trips to the bathroom, Lane's uninteresting monologues that serve as dinner conversation, and her incessant sweating, she expresses her concerns about the "ego, ego, ego" of actors, the falsity of theater and his struggle against Lane's conformity to society (29). Her frustration around these topics gives readers the idea that Franny's understanding of ego has a negative connotation, and this matches the problems she sees in the theater and in her boyfriend. Franny's ego perception implies a certain self-centeredness and high opinion of self. which is accompanied by the desire to perform actionsonly to the extent that they are beneficial to oneself. As she is overwhelmed by the presumed egos she sees consuming the world around her, she "crys her heart out for five minutes...to quell any louder manifestations of grief and confusion" in the room. bath, before passing out at the Sickler restaurant (22). . Following her disastrous date night with Lane, Franny returns home to the Glass family's apartment in Manhattan. After a few days of wallowing in emotional distress and spiritual turmoil on the living room couch, her older brother Zooey has had enough. Having been exposed to various religious teachings as a child, he recognizes the root of Franny's problem. He begins his confrontation with his sister by explaining: [he] brings this up for a good reason…. [he doesn't think] that [Franny] understood Jesus when [she was] a child and [he doesn't think] that [she] understands [Jesus] now… [she has] confused him in [her] mind with about five or ten other religious figures, and [he does not see] how [she] can continue the Jesus prayer until she knows who is who and what (71). This shows Zooey's rationale for the conversation he is about to have with his sister, emphasizing this understanding that even though she is seeking religious enlightenment and peace, she has become confused about the right way to go about it. this path. She goes on to explain that her “sloppy” way of “looking at things” makes her “constitutionally incapable of loving or understanding,” as she constantly criticizes and evaluates others, complaining about their inflated egos (72). As always, he blames his sister for deciding to sit idly by, blindly repeating Jesus' prayer "[begging] God for a little mystical experience that will make her kind and happy," instead of taking physical action to find the enlightenment she seeks. (72). He knows that if his sister does not “start to face the facts”, she will never get out of this “mess” (73). Trying to tread lightly on his fragile sister while trying to get his point across to Franny, he goes on to explain that while he's not trying to "[undermine] the Jesus Prayer," he is "against why, the how and where [she] uses it (73). Here, Zooey reveals the root of Franny's problem: her intention in using prayer and her confusion in understanding her ego. Although Zooey "would like to be convinced - that she is not using [prayer] as a substitute for fulfilling her duty in life", it is clear that her mindless repetition of the words contained within the pages of the book pilgrimage is, in fact, a substitution for her acting career, which Zooey identifies as her God-given talent (73, 86). The distinction between duty and ego that Zoey highlights in these lines from Salinger's novel can be better understood with the explanation of the Buddhist concept of dharma, which Zooey mentions earlier in the story (47). Dharma eliminates problems caused by ignorance. Practicing dharma means fulfilling spiritual duties as called by God. Franny's understanding of ego, at this point in the story, comes from ignorance because she cannot decipher the various "religious characters", as Zooey explained at the very beginning of their conversation ( 71). In Franny's case, her calling is to act, and Zooey explains that "the only religious thing she can do is act" and "be God's actor", because this is consistent with her religious duty, or to one's dharma (86). As readers, we know that her initial motivation for leaving acting was because she refused to tolerate the ego frenzy any longer. However, Zooey tells him, "It would take Christ himself to decide what is ego and what is not." (88).