The most popular motif in Franny and Zooey is Ego. It is Franny’s battle with ego that sends her into the crippling depression she and her family are combating throughout the book. Franny sees that the professors at her college to totally be drown by their egos and finds it absolutely irksome. She also notices that her boyfriend Lane would rather be bathed in his ego than to listen and pay attention to Franny. The ego in Lane is aimed at looking like a honcho and shooting down Franny’s ideals that, to him, seem foolish and elementary.
But Franny also has an ego herself. It is because of her ego that she is shooting down her professors and higher education, why she does not listen to her brother and her mother, and why she is willing to conduct such an extreme religious journey. Religion, as argued in the book, is all about believing that your views are correct and by pursuing a religious life you are surrendering to ego.
Zooey, nearing the end of the book, scolds Franny’s attack on the ego saying that it is wrong not to act on your ego or to ignore it and that without ego there is only hobby. He says that ego is the breeder of new ideas. If Einstein didn’t have an ego he would never have pursued his physics career and would have instead worked a more modest career at McDonalds or whatever chain stores were popular in those days. Ego is a big part of destiny and only believe they are meant to accomplish something if they have an ego. Zooey then draws the border between hobby and ego. He says that hobby is fun and mediocre and that ego is for those who want to make a difference.
But Franny also has an ego herself. It is because of her ego that she is shooting down her professors and higher education, why she does not listen to her brother and her mother, and why she is willing to conduct such an extreme religious journey. Religion, as argued in the book, is all about believing that your views are correct and by pursuing a religious life you are surrendering to ego.
Zooey, nearing the end of the book, scolds Franny’s attack on the ego saying that it is wrong not to act on your ego or to ignore it and that without ego there is only hobby. He says that ego is the breeder of new ideas. If Einstein didn’t have an ego he would never have pursued his physics career and would have instead worked a more modest career at McDonalds or whatever chain stores were popular in those days. Ego is a big part of destiny and only believe they are meant to accomplish something if they have an ego. Zooey then draws the border between hobby and ego. He says that hobby is fun and mediocre and that ego is for those who want to make a difference.
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