SOURCE: "Salinger's Oasis of Innocence," in Studies in J. D. Salinger: Reviews, Essays, and Critiques of The Catcher in the Rye and Other Fiction, edited by Marvin Laser and Norman Fruman, The Odyssey Press, 1963, pp. 241-44.

In the following essay, which was originally published in the New Republic in September 1961, Marple explores the theme of sexual innocence in Salinger's work.

Salinger's first full length novel, The Catcher in the Rye, emerged after scattered fragments concerning his characters appeared during a seven year span. For some time now, it has been evident that Salinger's second novel may be developing in the same way. Salinger writes of Franny and Zooey. "Both stories are early, critical entries in a narrative series I am doing about a family of settlers in 20th Century New York, the Glasses."

"Franny" is a beautifully balanced short story. Franny, at twenty, is on the edge of...