SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FAT LADY ON A PERSONAL AND SYMBOLIC LEVEL
             In the story Franny and Zooey there is a symbolic figure known as the fat lady, who was first mentioned to Franny and Zooey by their brother Seymour who commit suicide. Automatically, whatever Seymour had said to them would more than likely remain a significant part of their memory of him. Zooey interprets the fat lady as being representational of everyone. Everyone with their own problems, whether they be physical or otherwise, but still deserving their fair share of respect, as does every human being or fat lady for that matter. The fat lady is then said to be Jesus Christ, which either says one of two things. This could mean that since the fat lady is everyone, then, therefore she must be Jesus, as well as Buddha, Ganesh, Ghandi, Elvis, etc. Or, it could be a direct symbol of Jesus Christ, who he is, what he means to his followers, and in particular what he means to Franny. Jesus Christ, alleged son of god, healer of the sick. At this point and time, Franny may have trouble coming to terms with Jesus, and her faith, seeing as how throughout the book it has been noted that she does not understand Christ, and at this moment, she needs that faith more than anything to heal her from breaking down. Since Franny is having religious distance from her faith in God, Jesus needs to be masked behind something else, something less formal, something familiar, something like the fat lady, in order for Franny to acknowledge her. The fat lady is imagined by Franny and Zooey as being a large, obese, violently unattractive, woman with cancer, and veiny legs, sitting on a lawn chair, listening to her music full blast. A figure such as this one is much easier to accept than a widely popular idol such as Jesus Christ, who is said to be "superior to all", because there is a feeling of common ground between Franny and the fat lady. She seems to feel a common bond between her and th...