J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [150]
Also wrapped within “Carpenters” are a number of Zen and Vedantic themes, presented more subtly than in previous stories. Foremost among them is the topic of indiscrimination, which is actually the application of God-consciousness to individual lives and its clash with the world of accepted convention. Buddy presents this theme from the story’s opening tale, when the vegetable hawker selects a superior steed by sensing the horse’s inner spirit rather than by evaluating its external appearance. Throughout the story, the theme is extended by Buddy’s dilemma. He reveres and loves Seymour but cannot quite understand his actions. Some appear to be selfishly cruel: Seymour’s abandoning Muriel on their wedding day and his striking Charlotte Mayhew with a rock as a child. Buddy faces the challenge of seeing beyond the surface of these acts and perceiving the true motivation behind them. This is an exercise of faith for Buddy, who begins to doubt his brother’s virtue as he is pressured by the judgment of those around him.
Seymour’s diary entries recount his dates with Muriel and his visits to the Fedders’ home. They explain the relevance of the opening Taoist tale to this story. Seymour describes Muriel as materialistic and egotistical but says that the virtue of her simplicity outweighs those traits. When she presents Seymour with a dessert made by her own hands, he cries with grateful joy. It is the goodness contained in Muriel’s simplicity that Seymour most perceives, not Muriel’s conventionality. Speaking in the terms of the Taoist tale, Seymour has chosen a superior horse despite all outward appearances to the contrary. Yet Buddy is reluctant to accept this logic, and his actions show his disapproval of Seymour’s choice. When he reads Seymour’s words, he throws down the diary in anger and begins to drink heavily.
Buddy’s actions blend into another important theme presented by “Carpenters”: acceptance through faith. The incident with Charlotte Mayhew speaks to Salinger’s ongoing fascination with the competing forces of human nature. Seymour aspired to saintliness but was still capable of cruelty. This cruelty was not premeditated. It was instinctive. Although the character of Seymour Glass represented Salinger’s aspirations to the qualities of the Lamb, Seymour was also home to the Tyger, just as the darker forces of human nature live side by side with spirituality.
When Salinger penned “Carpenters,” he was still struggling to rationalize the coexistence of these forces. He did not understand why God imposed conflict through human nature but had come to accept it as part of God’s inscrutable plan. In “Carpenters,” Seymour employs the example of a kitten to condemn the human tendency to mask the crueler realities of creation with false sentimentality. “We are being sentimental when we give to a thing more tenderness than God gives to it,” he reasons. God’s plan is perfect and must be accepted, even if it conflicts with social concepts. The inclination of human beings to deny the existence of both sides of human nature and to mold their concept of God to fit their sentimental illusions is condemned by Seymour as sacrilege. “The human voice conspires to desecrate everything on earth,” he warns.5
In “Carpenters,” true acceptance is based upon faith and not logic. Seymour accepts Muriel despite her materialism. Buddy accepts Seymour despite his perceived cruelties. As the story ends, Buddy still does not understand why his brother threw a rock at Charlotte Mayhew as a child. Neither do readers. But the point being made is this: if we are to accept Seymour Glass, we must accept him in all of his complexity and flaws, as well as his virtues, because