The Inverted Forest: A Critical Analysis of J. D. Salinger’s Democratic Vedanta

by Alexandra A. Reinecke

Campolindo High School

alexandra.a.reinecke@gmail.com

Abstract

This article looks at Vedanta Hinduism in the fiction of J. D. Salinger. The article defines and traces the concept of manifold divinity—the presence of God in all we know as “earth-bound”—through Salinger’s work, highlighting a humanistic perspective literary scholars and scholars alike have ignored in the author’s canon. The aim of this paper is to use Vedanta Hinduism as a lens through which to place Salinger’s fiction in its rightful humanistic context.

Key words: Vedanta Hinduism, J. D. Salinger, humanism, democracy, manifold divinity

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