Glass family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (January 2008)
This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The Glass family is a group of fictional characters that have been featured in a number of J.D. Salinger's short stories and also in the novel Franny and Zooey, which began as the short stories "Franny" and "Zooey." All but one of the Glass family stories were first published in The New Yorker; several of them have been collected and published in the two compilations Nine Stories and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, and in the novel Franny and Zooey.

[edit] Members

The members of the Glass family are listed here, from eldest to youngest:

  • Bessie Glass (née Gallagher) and Les Glass: Retired vaudeville performers. Les is Jewish and Bessie is Irish. They are the parents of the following seven children:
  • Webb Gallagher "Buddy" Glass: The protagonist in "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters," "Seymour: An Introduction," and the narrator of "Zooey". It is revealed in the latter that he wrote at least two stories collected in Nine Stories: "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "Teddy". It is also suggested in "Seymour: An Introduction" that Buddy wrote The Catcher in the Rye. Buddy is often considered to be Salinger's alter ego. The character lives in upstate New York and teaches at a women's college. Buddy was very close to Seymour before Seymour committed suicide in 1948, and he narrates most of the Glass stories in his attempt to connect with his dead brother. Buddy was born in 1919.
  • Beatrice "Boo Boo" Glass Tannenbaum: Married, mother of three children, Boo Boo appears centrally in "Down at the Dinghy," is mentioned in "Hapworth 16, 1924," and is often referenced in "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" as the "sea-faring" Glass sibling currently occupying the New York apartment where much of the story's action takes place. Boo Boo "modestly prefers to be referred to as a Tuckahoe homemaker." Her age is unknown but it can be assumed that she was born in 1920, as she was born between Buddy and the twins.
  • Walter "Walt" Glass: American soldier killed in an accident in Occupied Japan shortly after World War II. He is described by his girlfriend in "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." He was also described in "Franny and Zooey" as being the only truly "lighthearted" son in the family. He was born in 1921.
  • Waker Glass: A Roman Catholic monk, of the Carthusian order. Walt's surviving twin brother. Little is known about Waker, as no stories have been written specifically about him. He has been mentioned in many of the Glass Family stories. It is likely that he was a conscientious objector during the war. He was born in 1921, twelve minutes after his twin brother.
  • Zachary Martin "Zooey" Glass: Title character of "Zooey," in which he is approximately 25 years old. This would make his birth in 1930, which seems correct, as he is mentioned to be five years older than Franny. He is an actor, and (according to Buddy) the most attractive of all the children. Boo Boo describes him as "the blue-eyed Jewish-Irish Mohican scout who died in your arms at the roulette table at Monte Carlo." He is characteristically misanthropic which he attributes to Seymour and Buddy's imposition of their college-age infatuation with Eastern mysticism on himself and Franny as children. The pronunciation of the name Zooey is debatable. It appears to rhyme with "phooey" but is frequently pronounced "Zoe".
  • Frances "Franny" Glass: Title character of "Franny," she is a college student and actress. In both "Franny" and "Zooey", she is depicted reading the book, The Way of a Pilgrim, which contributes to an emotional breakdown. She was born in 1935. She likely had the shortest career on It's a Wise Child, as the family no longer participated in the show after 1943. It is likely that Franny was only on the show for about two or three years.

The children are all precocious, and in fact have all appeared on a fictional radio quiz show called It's a Wise Child. Wise Child has, according to Salinger's stories, sent all seven Glass children through college. From 1927 to 1943, at least one of the Glass children appeared on the show, beginning with Seymour and Buddy. It is mentioned in "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" that each child appeared on the show under a pseudonym. This could explain the origins of Buddy's nickname.

The Glass family lives in New York City; all the children spent most of their childhood in an apartment on the Upper East Side.

[edit] Influences on other works

Some of the characters in the Wes Anderson movie The Royal Tenenbaums were purportedly modelled after the Glass family. It is interesting to note that Boo Boo is married to a Mr. Tannenbaum, as described in the story "Down at the Dinghy."

In February 1977, Esquire published, "For Rupert - with no promises" as an unsigned work of fiction. This was the first time in its 44 year history that Esquire hadn't identified a fiction writer. In the story, some signals led readers to speculate that it was in fact, the work of Salinger; first-person singular, names of the Glass family in "For Esmé with Love and Squalor", events from the story "For Esmé with Love and Squalor". It turned out, however, to be a clever parody by then editor of Esquire - Gordon Lish, who was quoted as saying, "I tried to borrow Salinger's voice and the psychological circumstances of his life, as I imagine them to be now. And I tried to use those things to elaborate on certain circumstances and events in his fiction to deepen them and add complexity." The Wall Street Journal 2/25/1977

Esmé Squalor, from the Series of Unfortunate Events novels, is named after "For Esmé with Love and Squalor".

The Glass Family is also seen by many to have influenced the Incandenza family of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, one of whom (Mario Incandenza) is nicknamed "Boo Boo."

Arguably, in some of his more sentimental and NY based writing, Paul Auster seems to be under the influence of Salinger. This is perhaps seen at its strongest in "The Brooklyn Follies", where not only the style and content is reminiscent of Salinger's writing, but the narrator and main character is named Nathan Glass.