Okay, let's be honest here

Okay, let's be honest here.

He was a pedophile.

>warns little girl about bananafish
>kills self when she doesnt give it up for him

Who the fuck has Boo Boo Tannenbaum as her name?

I'm willing to hear you out but I'm gonna need more from you.

Why do people always get so worked up when someone points out that Seymour was a pedo, and that Salinger's own life reflects his struggle against pedophilia? Salinger had relationships with numerous young girls.

One of the most ridiculous objections is that Seymour couldn't be a pedo because he liked the "innocence" of children. But that's exactly what pedophiles like: pedophiles are attracted to innocence, because pedos themselves are traumatized, emotionally stunted, and unable to deal with the adult world. They don't fuck kids because they hate them, they live kids to an unnatural degree. And it is implied, when Sibyl runs off without regret, that she, too, likes it. Salinger had all of these traits, too: why else is Seymour presented as a brilliant artist and spiritualist? It's not like how Nabokov implicitly indicts Humbert and makes sure the reader knows he is immoral; Salinger is trying to portray a pedophile sympathetically. If you refuse to acknowledge this, you destroy half the richness of Salinger's work.

Didn't he meta-retcon Bananfish?

wat

This theory only gets more plausible when you consider For Esme With Love and Squalor

Yes, and that's why he did the smart thing any pedo should and divorced himself from society.

And a shitty overrated author.