What Would Seymour Do? Trivia Quiz

Answer: A dead cat

When Buddy is in his and Seymour's apartment in 'Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters', he reads some of the entries in Seymour's diary. One of the entries mentions him going out for a meal with Muriel and Mrs. Fedder, her mother, and claims that Mrs. Fedder 'has been haunted for days' after she asked Seymour what he was going to do when he left the Army, and he responded with the above comment, which she wrote off as a joke.

His reason for making the comment is that, according to a Zen Buddhist master, a dead cat is the most valuable thing in the world, as no-one can put a price on it.

Answer: He thought she was beautiful

When Seymour and Charlotte were 12, he invited her to come and stay with the Glass family at their holiday home, and while she was sitting on the driveway and playing with Boo Boo's cat, he threw a stone at her. Buddy says in 'Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters', "That's all there was to it. He threw it at her because she looked so beautiful sitting in the middle of the driveway with Boo Boo's cat." The stone cut her face, causing her to need stitches, and leaving her with a slightly crooked mouth.

Seymour's pseudonym on the show was Billy Black. 'It's A Wise Child' is also alluded to in 'Seymour: an Introduction', where Buddy talks about how Seymour was the most memorable panellist of the Glass children and would turn the show into a discussion, rather than just answering questions, and in 'Franny & Zooey'. Near the end of the second half of the book, Zooey reminds Franny of how Seymour used to motivate her to perform well on the show by telling her to do things for the 'Fat Lady', who Zooey saw as being a representation of Jesus.

Answer: 17 years

At the beginning of 'Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters', Buddy mentions how Franny had to sleep in his and Seymour's room when she was a baby, due to other Glass family members catching mumps. When she cried and woke them up, Seymour - who was 17 at the time - calmed her down by reading her an old Taoist tale about horses.

Answer: "Is the girl who turns her doll's head round a little tribute to Franny?"

Seymour is a story writer himself. In response to one of Buddy's later stories, Seymour writes a little story for Buddy in return, about a renowned music critic who is incensed at hearing his daughter practising songs by Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern for the school glee club. He complains to her school's headmaster about it, and the headmaster promises to have a word with the Music Appreciation teacher. Ironically, as the critic walks home, feeling pleased with himself, he whistles 'K-K-K-Katy', a popular song by Geoffrey O'Hara.

Although Seymour never makes the remark about Franny, the comment about the doll's head is an allusion to 'Franny & Zooey', in the scene where Zooey is sitting in the bath reading a letter from Buddy. In it, Buddy mentions a haiku he found in the hotel room where Seymour died, about a little girl on a plane turning her doll's head to look at him.

Answer: He was too happy to get married

Seymour states that he is too happy to get married, and that he cannot get married until he feels less happy and more stable. Mrs. Burwick is, understandably, furious with Seymour for hurting Muriel and giving such a bizarre reason for not wanting to get married, especially as he does it at the last minute.

She also figures out that Buddy is Seymour's brother and that Seymour was Billy Black. While a small group of wedding guests are relaxing at Buddy and Seymour's apartment, Mrs Burwick telephones around and finds out that the couple have eloped.

A few years later, they go on holiday to Florida, and this is when Seymour commits suicide.

Answer: A man sitting on his lawn and letting a white cat bite his left hand

Seymour's poetry is heavily influenced by Chinese and Japanese poetry, particularly haiku. According to Buddy, a typical Seymour poem is a six-line verse consisting of thirty-four syllables, and there are a hundred and eighty-four poems in total by him. Although the poem about the young woman never actually mentions a balloon, Buddy thinks that the object on her bed could not be anything else. Buddy's other favourite poem by Seymour is about a widower sitting on his lawn and letting a white cat bite his left hand - the fact it is specifically his left hand bothers Franny - while watching the moon.

As for the other answers, Buddy likens the effect of Seymour's poetry to a cornet player walking into a room, beautifully playing a short set of notes, and then walking back out again. Issa wrote the poem about the fat-faced peony, while the poem about the cabinet member is by Lao Ti-Kao.

Answer: Stink bombs and itching powder

Franny and Zooey give Seymour stink bombs and itching powder, and tell him to drop them in a crowded place when he gets the chance. The diary entry also mentions how the Glass parents, Bessie and Les, and siblings put on a vaudeville show for him. Bessie and Les perform a soft shoe routine, as do Boo Boo and Buddy. Franny sings 'Abdul Abulbul Amir', Walter and Waker do a Buck and Bubbles routine, and Zooey tries to perform an exit in the style of Will Mahoney, an American vaudevillian who had success in Australia (where Bessie and Les lived and worked for some time), but accidentally slams into a bookcase!

The green tie, which Seymour calls the 'green intoxicator', belongs to Buddy and is mentioned in a letter in 'Seymour: an Introduction'.

Answer: Stoopball, kerb marbles and pocket pool

Buddy does not elaborate on Seymour's pool skills, but he does mention the other two games. Stoopball involves throwing a ball at a wall, and trying to score a home run by getting it to bounce off the wall and onto a building on the opposite side of the road. Seymour nearly always scored home runs when playing stoopball and had a particular way of throwing the ball.

He also had a particular way of rolling a marble and getting it to hit another player's marble by flicking his wrist sideways, which Buddy describes as being similar to skipping a stone across a pond. Buddy tried to copy Seymour's techniques, but was never successful.

Answer: A Perfect Day for Bananafish

In 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish', Seymour is on holiday with Muriel. Muriel is on the phone to her mother, who is concerned about Seymour's strange behaviour, while Seymour is on the beach. He talks to Sybil, a little girl who is staying in the same hotel, about the titular fish. Afterwards, he goes back to his hotel room, where Muriel is sleeping, and shoots himself in the head.

'Down at the Dinghy' and 'Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut' are also Glass family stories featured in 'For Esmé: with Love & Squalor'. The former is about Boo Boo and her son; the latter focuses on Eloise, Walt's former girlfriend, and mentions his death in an accidental explosion. 'The Laughing Man' is another story from the same book, but it is not a Glass family story.

Answer: Hapworth 16, 1924

'Hapworth 16, 1924' originally appeared in the 'New Yorker' in June 1965. It is a lengthy story, taking up a good portion of the magazine, and was criticised for being rambling and near-unreadable, though Salinger himself considered it to be one of his best stories. In the story, Seymour is seven years old, and predicts that he will die young and that Buddy will become a writer.

As for the other stories mentioned, 'I'm Crazy' features Holden Caulfield, and was later reworked into 'The Catcher in the Rye'. 'Just Before the War with the Eskimos' is a non-Glass family story featured in 'For Esmé - with Love & Squalor'. 'The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls' is another epistolary short story, again featuring Holden Caulfield, who writes a letter to his younger brother.