It is apparent through out the work of J. Salinger that he is a practicing Zen Buddhist. Zen is a form of Buddhism in which enlightenment is sought through intuition. Salinger believes in the equilibrium between good and bad and incorporates his beliefs into his writing. Throughout his work Salinger uses little girls to signal a Zen moment. The little girls represent innocence and purity, the epitome of Zen. .
The first time Salinger uses a little girl to signal a Zen moment takes place in his novel Franny and Zooey. Zooey is reading a letter from his brother Buddy in which Buddy rambles on and on about the path Zooey should take in life. In the letter Buddy writes how at the meat counter of the supermarket he saw a pretty little girl waiting with her mother. He continues by writing that he asked the little girl how many boyfriends she had and what their names were. She responded "in a piercing voice "Bobby and Dorothy"" (p.64). This is a Zen moment because the little girl who is so innocent and pure cannot distinguish the difference between boys and girls. The little girl had been so immersed in the moment that she knew the answer with out even thinking about it, which is the essence of Zen Buddhism.
Another instance in which Salinger uses little girls to signal a moment of Zen occurs in the middle of the novel Franny and Zooey. Franny is sleeping on the couch in the darkness of the living room. As she is lying there asleep, the sun shines in on her through the window and captures her beauty. "And here at the couch, it should be mentioned, the sun, for all its ungraciousness to the rest of the room, was behaving beautifully" (p.123). This is a perfect example of Zen because the sun is capturing Franny's beauty and innocence while she sleeps. Franny is not a little girl, however, she still represents innocence and purity, which are the essence of Zen. .
The next instance in which Salinger uses a little girl to signal a Zen moment occurs near the end of the novel Franny and Zooey.
As of 1966, Franny and Zooey shot to second place on the best -seller list (Vertical/Biography 7). ... "Franny" was first published in the New Yorker, January 25, 1955. "Zooey" was first published also in the New Yorker, on May 4, 1957 (Ryan 2581). ...
"A Perfect Day for Bananafish- introduced Seymour Glass and the Glass family, which come up frequently in Salinger's later writings such as "Franny and Zooey,"" written in 1961, "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters,"" written in 1963, and "Seymour: An Introduction,"" also written in 1963. ... Many of the traits Peggy was known to have as a child are apparent in Zooey's character in Franny and Zooey. ...
He has also published 35 short stories including A Perfect Day for Bananafish (1963), which first appeared in The New Yorker and introduced readers to Seymour Glass, a character who appeared in Franny and Zooey (1961) Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (both 1963) and who eventually committed suicide. ...
His entire literary output comprises 13 stories and novellas collected in Nine Stories (1953), Franny and Zooey (1961), and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour: An Introduction (1963) and the Catcher In The Rye (1951), a novel of adolescents anguish that won great critical and popular admiration, especially among college students. ...