Literary Devices in Franny and Zooey
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
We start to pick up on the importance of food about halfway through "Franny," when Lane and Franny order lunch at Sickler's. Lane orders a sophisticated French meal: salad, snails, and frogs' legs....
Setting
The setting of "Franny" contrasts well with the setting of "Zooey." In the first part of this novel, you've got an antisocial college girl who hates pretension…in a pretentious French restaur...
Narrator Point of View
Let's start with "Franny." The narrator is some unknown third party observing Franny and Lane's rather tense date. What's interesting about this narration is that when the text gives us information...
Genre
"Franny" introduces the major themes of the novel, but it's in "Zooey" that the family drama really comes in. The majority of the text is taken up by family arguments: first Zooey and his mother, t...
Tone
Though "Zooey" is narrated by Buddy Glass and "Franny" is – as far as we know – narrated by some uninvolved third person, the style and authorial tone are both essentially continuous th...
Writing Style
Though "Zooey" is narrated by Buddy Glass and "Franny" is – as far as we know – narrated by some uninvolved third person, the style and tone are both essentially continuous throughout,...
What's Up With the Title?
Salinger originally published two separate stories – "Franny" in 1955 and "Zooey" in 1957. Each story is named for its protagonist. (See "Character Roles" for a discussion of who is protagoni...
What's Up With the Ending?
In the conclusion of Franny and Zooey, Franny effectively resolves her crisis. As Zooey finishes speaking, we read that "for joy, apparently, it was all Franny could do to hold the phone, even with...
Plot Analysis
Note: Because Salinger wrote "Franny" and "Zooey" as separate stories, each has a plot that is complete in and of itself. Because of this, we chose to analyze the plot of each story separately. As...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
"Franny" does not fit any of the Booker plots, since it lacks the trademark paired stages of "improvement" and "worsening" that characterize basically all of Booker's descriptions. However, we can...
Three Act Plot Analysis
Note: Because Salinger wrote "Franny" and "Zooey" as separate stories, each has a plot that is complete in and of itself. Because of this, we chose to analyze the plot of each story separately. As...
Trivia
"Zooey" is the longest piece of fiction The New Yorker has ever published (as of 2001, at least). (Source) Zooey Deschanel, that actress you might know, was named after Salinger's Zooey. (Source)Sa...
Steaminess Rating
We do get a few hints in "Franny" that she and Lane are in fact sleeping together. First is Franny's P.S. in her letter that she "spoke to Mother on the phone last night" and that Lane should "rela...
Allusions
T.S. Eliot (Franny.1.4)Sappho, fr. 140a (Franny.1.4)Rainer Maria Rilke, The Duino Elegies (Franny.1.7)Gustave Flaubert (Franny.2.10, Z.6.60)Leo Tolstoy (Franny.2.14), War and Peace (Zooey.3.5)Fyodo...