Franny and Zooey Education Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Story.Section.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"The fact is, if you want to know, I can't help thinking you'd make a damn site better-adjusted actor if Seymour and I hadn't thrown in the Upanishads and the Diamond Sutra and Eckhart and all our other old loves with the rest of your recommended home reading when you were small." (Zooey.3.4)

Is Buddy right? Would they have been better off?

Quote #5

"With these two things on my mind, I thought as I was driving home from the supermarket that at long last I could write to you and tell you why S. and I took over your and Franny's education as early and as highhandedly as we did. We've never put it into words for you, and I think it's high time one of us did. But now I'm not so sure I can do it. The little girl at the meat counter is gone, and I can't quite see the polite face of the little doll on the plane. And the old horror of being a professional writer, and the usual stench of words that goes with it, is beginning to drive me out of my seat. It seems terribly important to try, though." (Zooey.3.7)

It might also be that this is something that cannot be explained in logical terms – something which does not belong to the realm of knowledge.

Quote #6

"He was telling me he used to listen to Franny and me every week when he was a kid – and you know what he was doing, the little bastard? He was building me up at Franny's expense. For absolutely no reason except to ingratiate himself and show off his hot little Ivy League intellect." Zooey put out his tongue and gave a subdued, modified Bronx cheer. "Phooey," he said, and resumed using his razor. "Phooey, I say, on all white-shoe college boys who edit their campus literary magazines. Give me an honest con man any day." (Zooey.5.31)

Zooey's view of college pretension is right on par with Franny's.