Franny and Zooey

by

J. D. Salinger

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Franny and Zooey makes teaching easy.

Lane Coutell Character Analysis

Lane Coutell is Franny Glass’s college boyfriend, a self-satisfied, conventional, and pretentious young man. He pretends to be less enthusiastic about Franny than he really is, presumably to avoid appearing overeager. Yet despite his real affection for and attraction to Franny, he doesn’t understand her alienation from the intellectual inauthenticity of college life or her yearning for spiritual wisdom. His total failure to empathize with her when she attempts to explain her interest in The Way of A Pilgrim arguably precipitates the beginning of her nervous breakdown. After Franny returns to her family’s Manhattan apartment to recuperate, Lane repeatedly calls and ends up talking to Franny’s mother Mrs. Glass, who likes him. He tells Mrs. Glass that The Way of A Pilgrim is what caused Franny’s breakdown. Franny’s brother Zooey dislikes Lane, believing him to be superficially charming but shallow, self-involved, and undermining of Franny.

Lane Coutell Quotes in Franny and Zooey

The Franny and Zooey quotes below are all either spoken by Lane Coutell or refer to Lane Coutell. 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:
Ego and Conformity Theme Icon
).
Franny  Quotes

Lane himself lit a cigarette as the train pulled in. Then, like so many people, who, perhaps, ought to be issued only a very probational pass to meet trains, he tried to empty his face of all expression that might quite simply, perhaps even beautifully, reveal how he felt about the arriving person.

Related Characters: Franny Glass, Lane Coutell
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

“I think the emphasis I put on why he was so neurotically attracted to the mot juste wasn’t too bad. I mean in light of what we know today. Not just psychoanalysis and all that crap, but certainly to a certain extent.”

Related Characters: Lane Coutell (speaker), Franny Glass
Page Number: 11-12
Explanation and Analysis:

“If you’re a poet, you do something beautiful. I mean you’re supposed to leave something beautiful after you get off the page and everything. The ones you’re talking about don’t leave a single, solitary thing beautiful.”

Related Characters: Franny Glass (speaker), Lane Coutell
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

After a moment, she picked up the book, raised it chest-high, and pressed it to her—firmly, and quite briefly. Then she put it back into the handbag, stood up, and came out of the enclosure.

Related Characters: Franny Glass, Lane Coutell
Related Symbols: Little Book/The Way of a Pilgrim
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:

“And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you’re conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way.”

Related Characters: Franny Glass (speaker), Zooey Glass, Lane Coutell
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

“I’m not afraid to compete. It’s just the opposite. Don’t you see that? I’m afraid I will compete—that’s what scares me. That’s why I quit the Theatre Department. Just because I’m so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else’s values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn’t make it right.”

Related Characters: Franny Glass (speaker), Lane Coutell
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

“But the thing is, the marvellous thing is, when you first start doing it, you don’t even have to have faith in what you’re doing. I mean even if you’re terribly embarrassed about the whole thing, it’s perfectly all right. I mean you’re not insulting anybody or anything. In other words, no one asks you to believe a single thing when you first start out.”

Related Characters: Franny Glass (speaker), Lane Coutell
Related Symbols: Little Book/The Way of a Pilgrim
Page Number: 32  
Explanation and Analysis:

“All that stuff . . . I don’t think you leave any margin for the most elementary psychology. I mean I think all those religious experiences have a very obvious psychological background—you know what I mean . . . It’s interesting, though.”

Related Characters: Lane Coutell (speaker), Franny Glass, Zooey Glass
Related Symbols: Little Book/The Way of a Pilgrim
Page Number: 34–35   
Explanation and Analysis:
Zooey Quotes

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.

Related Characters: Buddy Glass (speaker), Franny Glass, Zooey Glass, Lane Coutell, Seymour Glass
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:

“You can’t live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes[.]”

Related Characters: Mrs. Bessie Glass (speaker), Franny Glass, Zooey Glass, Lane Coutell, Seymour Glass, Walt Glass
Related Symbols: Chicken Soup
Page Number: 85-86  
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Franny and Zooey LitChart as a printable PDF.
Franny and Zooey PDF

Lane Coutell Quotes in Franny and Zooey

The Franny and Zooey quotes below are all either spoken by Lane Coutell or refer to Lane Coutell. 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:
Ego and Conformity Theme Icon
).
Franny  Quotes

Lane himself lit a cigarette as the train pulled in. Then, like so many people, who, perhaps, ought to be issued only a very probational pass to meet trains, he tried to empty his face of all expression that might quite simply, perhaps even beautifully, reveal how he felt about the arriving person.

Related Characters: Franny Glass, Lane Coutell
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

“I think the emphasis I put on why he was so neurotically attracted to the mot juste wasn’t too bad. I mean in light of what we know today. Not just psychoanalysis and all that crap, but certainly to a certain extent.”

Related Characters: Lane Coutell (speaker), Franny Glass
Page Number: 11-12
Explanation and Analysis:

“If you’re a poet, you do something beautiful. I mean you’re supposed to leave something beautiful after you get off the page and everything. The ones you’re talking about don’t leave a single, solitary thing beautiful.”

Related Characters: Franny Glass (speaker), Lane Coutell
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

After a moment, she picked up the book, raised it chest-high, and pressed it to her—firmly, and quite briefly. Then she put it back into the handbag, stood up, and came out of the enclosure.

Related Characters: Franny Glass, Lane Coutell
Related Symbols: Little Book/The Way of a Pilgrim
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:

“And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you’re conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way.”

Related Characters: Franny Glass (speaker), Zooey Glass, Lane Coutell
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

“I’m not afraid to compete. It’s just the opposite. Don’t you see that? I’m afraid I will compete—that’s what scares me. That’s why I quit the Theatre Department. Just because I’m so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else’s values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn’t make it right.”

Related Characters: Franny Glass (speaker), Lane Coutell
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

“But the thing is, the marvellous thing is, when you first start doing it, you don’t even have to have faith in what you’re doing. I mean even if you’re terribly embarrassed about the whole thing, it’s perfectly all right. I mean you’re not insulting anybody or anything. In other words, no one asks you to believe a single thing when you first start out.”

Related Characters: Franny Glass (speaker), Lane Coutell
Related Symbols: Little Book/The Way of a Pilgrim
Page Number: 32  
Explanation and Analysis:

“All that stuff . . . I don’t think you leave any margin for the most elementary psychology. I mean I think all those religious experiences have a very obvious psychological background—you know what I mean . . . It’s interesting, though.”

Related Characters: Lane Coutell (speaker), Franny Glass, Zooey Glass
Related Symbols: Little Book/The Way of a Pilgrim
Page Number: 34–35   
Explanation and Analysis:
Zooey Quotes

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.

Related Characters: Buddy Glass (speaker), Franny Glass, Zooey Glass, Lane Coutell, Seymour Glass
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:

“You can’t live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes[.]”

Related Characters: Mrs. Bessie Glass (speaker), Franny Glass, Zooey Glass, Lane Coutell, Seymour Glass, Walt Glass
Related Symbols: Chicken Soup
Page Number: 85-86  
Explanation and Analysis: