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The oldest Glass sibling, Seymour was the first (and widely considered the best) child host of the radio program “It’s A Wise Child.” As a young man, he served in World War II; after returning from the war, he died by suicide. Though Seymour does not appear in Franny and Zooey, grief for him hangs over the lives of his younger siblings Buddy, Franny, and Zooey, all of whom remember him as an intelligent, funny, kind, wise, and mysterious person. When Franny and Zooey were children, Seymour and Buddy tried to educate them in the world religions’ mystical traditions, an education that partially explains college-student Franny’s fascination with The Way of A Pilgrim, a religious text she found on Seymour’s desk. Zooey resents Seymour and Buddy because he feels that their mystical education turned him and Franny into “freaks.”
Seymour Glass Quotes in Franny and Zooey
The Franny and Zooey quotes below are all either spoken by Seymour Glass or refer to Seymour Glass. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Zooey Quotes
I know the difference between a mystical story and a love story. I say that my current offering isn’t a mystical story, or a religiously mystifying story, at all. I say it’s a compound, or multiple, love story, pure and complicated.
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I can’t help thinking that 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.
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Seymour once said to me—in a crosstown bus, of all places—that all legitimate religious study must lead to unlearning the differences, the illusory differences, between boys and girls, animals and stones, day and night, heat and cold.
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“You can’t live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes[.]”
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“This whole goddam house stinks of ghosts. I don’t mind so much being haunted by a dead ghost, but I resent like hell being haunted by a half-dead one. I wish to God Buddy’d make up his mind. He does everything else Seymour ever did—or tries to. Why the hell doesn’t he kill himself and be done with it?”
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“Those two bastards got us nice and early and made us into freaks with freakish standards, that’s all. We’re the Tattooed Lady, and we’re never going to have a minute’s peace, the rest of our lives, till everybody else is tattooed too.”
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“There isn’t anyone out there who isn’t Seymour’s Fat Lady. […] And don’t you know—listen to me, now—don’t you know who that Fat Lady really is? . . . Ah, buddy. Ah, buddy. It’s Christ Himself.”
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Get the entire Franny and Zooey LitChart as a printable PDF.
Seymour Glass Character Timeline in Franny and Zooey
The timeline below shows where the character Seymour Glass appears in Franny and Zooey. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Zooey
...explains that only Zooey and his youngest sibling appear in the story. Their oldest sibling, Seymour, died by suicide nearly seven years prior. The second sibling, Buddy, teaches writing at a...
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...1943. Listeners found the children either horrifically pretentious or “bonafide underage wits.” Most listeners thought Seymour was the best host and Zooey the second-best. All the children, Zooey in particular, interested...
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...which asks Buddy to get rid of the private phone line installed in his and Seymour’s childhood room. He asks Zooey to gently communicate his refusal and goes on to explain...
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...him off finishing college, and secondly because he felt he would never catch up to Seymour, already a Ph.D. Buddy never regrets dropping out of college except when he wonders if...
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...and that in any case, Zooey would probably be a “better-adjusted actor” if Buddy and Seymour hadn’t shared their own academic and religious reading—“the Upanishads and the Diamond Sutra and Eckhart”—with...
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Buddy reminds Zooey that Seymour died by suicide exactly three years before. He says that he cried all five hours...
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...had two, “Bobby and Dorothy.” That incident made Buddy want to explain why he and Seymour tried to educate Franny and Zooey the way they did: Seymour thought, and Buddy concurred,...
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In sum, Buddy explains, he and Seymour wanted Franny and Zooey to know about the teachings of the world’s great mystics and...
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Buddy also apologizes for not visiting much in the aftermath of Seymour’s suicide. Buddy admits that he was afraid of what Franny and Zooey might ask him....
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...is required by mere “theatrical ingenuity,” and promises that if Zooey does so, he and Seymour will attend with flowers. He also promises Zooey his “affection and support.” After signing off,...
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...every time Les turns on the radio, he expects to hear all his children, including Seymour and Walt, on “It’s a Wise Child.” She doesn’t think he has accepted the fact...
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...been gentler—though perhaps not, as her eyes can communicate tragedy not only about events like Seymour’s suicide but also about trivialities. She says she’ll be back, leaves, and closes the door....
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Mrs. Glass reminds Zooey that she never goes into Seymour’s room. Zooey apologizes and suggests they stop talking about it. Mrs. Glass tells him he’s...
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...a haircut. He smiles, but then he orders her to remember how much analysis helped Seymour before she tries to get Franny in to see a psychoanalyst.
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...critical opinions with him. Zooey tells her that they should criticize themselves, not other people: Seymour and Buddy turned them into “freaks with freakish standards” that they foist on others.
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...competent to do it. Franny—at first very quietly, then audibly—says she wants to talk to Seymour. Zooey stares out the window: across the street, a little girl is reuniting with her...
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...Mrs. Glass asks why, he claims not to know, flees down the hall, and enters Seymour and Buddy’s old room for the first time in years. After he closes the door,...
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Zooey sits unmoving at Seymour’s desk for 20 minutes. Then he opens the desk drawer, removes some shirt cardboards, and...
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...Jesus Prayer one minute and praising Jesus the next. He’s “bitter” about religion, TV, and Seymour and Buddy—he blames his older brothers for making him and Franny into “freaks.” The voice...
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...night, when he was performing on “It’s a Wise Child” and furious about the audience, Seymour told him to shine his shoes anyway—“for the Fat Lady.” Seymour never explained what he...
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Franny stands up, holding the phone, and tells Zooey that Seymour once told her to “be funny for the Fat Lady.” She too imagined that the...
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