By understanding the true message of the Jesus prayer – through Zooey’s guidance – Franny reaches her ultimate goal of enlightenment and peace. Franny’s rejection of materialism, as well as, her confusion and suffering have indirectly provided her with the concept of Christ-consciousness from the Jesus prayer which has led to her enlightenment.
Franny’s rejection of materialism has indirectly led to her enlightenment. Franny believes that the world she lives in is solely concerned with the “tiny and meaningless” material goods, devoid of spiritual meaning: “What's the difference whether the treasure is money, or property, or even culture, or even just plain knowledge?” Franny, unlike the rest of the people around her, does not find value in material objects, and believes that society lacks spiritual meaning. Salinger cleverly portrays this contrast between spirituality and materialism with Lane and Franny in the restaurant:
"Which apparently was written by a group of terribly advanced monks who sort of advocated this really incredible method of praying." "Hold still," Lane said to a pair of frogs' legs. "Anyway, so the pilgrim learns how to pray the way these very mystical persons say you should – I mean he keeps at it till he's perfected it and everything. […]." "I hate to mention it, but I'm going to reek of garlic," Lane said.
While Lane focuses solely on his food, Franny talks about her religious books and does not touch her food. This visual representation of the conflict between materialism and spirituality is cleverly portrayed by Salinger to outline the main theme of the book – Franny’s materialistic and spiritual nature at at war with each other because Franny believes she can choose to live a spiritual life or a materialistic one but cannot have both. Franny's refusal to touch her own food has a spiritual asceticism to it; in her quest to shun materialism, she has gone so far as to not eat at all. This asceticism carries into Zooey where Franny refuses her mother's chicken soup.
As a result of her rejection of this materialistic society, Franny turns to the Jesus prayer in hope of finding enlightenment and peace: “Just because I'm choosy about what I want— in this case, enlightenment, or peace, instead of money or prestige or fame or any of those things —doesn't mean I'm not as egotistical and self- seeking as everybody else.” Franny believes that one can only reach enlightenment if they choose a spiritual life over a materialistic one; she believes that the form of enlightenment she will receive from the Jesus prayer will ease the suffering resulting from her rejection of materialism. Zooey however, believes that she misunderstands the form of enlightenment she can actually receive from the prayer: “And when you miss seeing that, I swear to you, you're missing the whole point of the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer has one aim, and one aim only. To endow the person who says it with Christ-Consciousness.” Zooey tells Franny that the Jesus prayer does the complete opposite of helping her through her rejection of materialism; rather, it provides her with “christ consciousness” which makes her view society with a different perspective. Therefore, Zooey believes that the way in which Franny is using the prayer will never lead to her enlightenment; he believes that the Jesus prayer can lead to enlightenment through Christ consciousness, but Franny is not willing to understand the concept of Christ consciousness in order to be enlightened. Franny has a specific form of enlightenment in mind that does not involve looking at society with a different perspective – she wants to completely reject the society she lives in (which in her opinion is solely materialistic) and let the Jesus prayer mentally put her in a safer environment away from materialism. Zooey is trying to tell her that by having a specific sense of the type enlightenment she wants to receive from the prayer, she will not get her anywhere with the prayer: “Enlightenment's supposed to come with the prayer, not before it.” He explains to Franny that with her mindset, she will never reach enlightenment because the Jesus prayer can “only” “endow” her with christ-conciousness. Therefore, throughout the novel, Zooey tries to sway Franny towards Christ consciousness through symbolism: "‘What you need is some chicken soup, buddy.’" Using the symbol of the chicken soup, Zooey tries to explain to his sister that the spiritual life she seeks is everywhere – even in a bowl of chicken soup, which is, in Zooey’s view, “concentrated”. The chicken soup, which is what he calls “Bessie's offering”, is a symbol of the caring and love of ordinary people. Bessie and Les can’t help their children intellectually, but they can still offer spiritual love and support. Through the soup, Zooey exclaims to Franny that the world is not as “tiny and meaningless” as she thinks because holiness and spirituality can be found in ordinary items. The chicken soup, therefore, is holy. Thus, Zooey conveys to Franny that love and respect is owed to everyone – even in the people Franny might find pretentious – because of the spirituality within everyone, not just “some guru”. Although Zooey constantly mentions the chicken soup throughout the novel, Franny only catches on to its symbolism at the very end of the novel when Zooey reiterates the message over the phone. This is because at the beginning of the phone call, Zooey pretends to be Buddy. By pretending to be Buddy, Zooey absorbs his spirit and tries to become him to speak the words Franny needs to hear, in a voice that will mean something to her; allowing Zooey to take on the role of older brother and advisor. But in the end, Zooey eventually got the message of the chicken soup across to Franny, which is of the symbols that have led to Franny’s understanding of the Jesus prayer, and thus her enlightenment. Thus, Franny’s rejection of materialism, has made Zooey emphasize the idea of Christ consciousness from the Jesus prayer to give her new perception of the society she had previously thought lacks spirituality, which has contributed to Franny’s enlightenment. Franny’s confusion and suffering have also indirectly led to her enlightenment. Franny’s rejection of materialism has given her the urge to obtain spiritual meaning. The only person that she wants to guide her through her journey of possessing spiritual meaning is her eldest sibling, Seymour: “That little book is called 'The Pilgrim Continues His Way,' and it's a sequel to another little book, called 'The Way of a Pilgrim,' […] and she got both books out of Seymour and Buddy's old room, where they've been sitting on Seymour's desk for as long as I can remember”. Franny took the books because they have been on Seymour’s desk for a long time. This means that these books have had a particular significance to Seymour’s life and Franny wants to know why. The books, therefore, become a symbol of the closest Franny can get to advice from Seymour. Therefore, by repeating the Jesus prayer, Franny tries to put herself in Seymour’s position in order to find enlightenment. However, trying to have a mindset like that of Seymour’s has led to her confusion because of her inability to understand what she is looking for in the Jesus prayer; hence, she did not immediately find enlightenment through the Jesus prayer and instead had a breakdown in which she continued to pray incessantly in hope of finding what Seymour saw in the Jesus prayer. In trying to help Franny out of her breakdown, Zooey realizes that Franny will only listen to advice on the situation if it comes from Seymour: “Shall I try to get Buddy on the phone?" […] "I want to talk to Seymour," she said”. Zooey begins to realize that the root to Franny’s suffering is her inability to understand Seymour’s interpretation of the Jesus prayer. While Buddy can tell her the true message behind the Jesus prayer, he would not be able to tell her about Seymour’s comprehension of the Jesus prayer and the significance of the Jesus prayer to him. In critiquing Franny’s use of the prayer, Zooey further confirms this realization:
If you're going to say the Jesus Prayer, at least say it to Jesus, and not to St. Francis and Seymour and Heidi's grandfather all wrapped up in one. […]"If you don't understand Jesus, you can't understand His prayer. You don't get the prayer at all. You just get some kind of organized cant. […] And when you miss seeing that, I swear to you, you're missing the whole point of the Jesus prayer."
This point that Franny does not understand Jesus is an important one. Zooey says this to Franny because he thinks that Franny mistakenly, and perhaps subconsciously, combines Jesus with other Biblical figures and with their brother Seymour. Zooey realizes that Franny wants to be connected to Seymour more than to Jesus. Franny's tears go a long way toward supporting this claim. Furthermore, the point that Zooey makes about Franny praying to Seymour and not Jesus is his realization that he has to approach Franny differently; he has to give her advice that was said by Seymour and not him. Upon this realization, Zooey goes into Seymour’s bedroom and calls Franny on the phone as Buddy. Franny's barriers seem to break down when she thinks she is talking to Buddy. She even responds to Zooey's living room comments because she thinks she's giving this response to someone else. Zooey uses his older brothers to help Franny out of her breakdown. In the living room, Franny told Zooey that she wanted to talk to Seymour on the phone. And in a way, she does. By passing on Seymour's story of the "Fat Lady," Zooey channels his older brother's wisdom to his little sister. He also channels Buddy as well by pretending to be him at the beginning of the phone call. All three brothers play a role in getting Franny back on track. Zooey tells her the message of christ consciousness that he has been trying to tell her from the very beginning of the novellla, however, this time, he says it through Seymour:
But I'll tell you a terrible secret—Are you listening to me? There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady. That includes your Professor Tupper, buddy. And all his goddam cousins by the dozens. There isn't anyone anywhere that isn't Seymour's Fat Lady. Don't you know that? Don't you know that goddam secret yet? And don't you know—listen to me, now—don't you know who that Fat Lady really is? . . . Ah, buddy. Ah, buddy. It's Christ Himself. Christ Himself, buddy."
The Fat Lady being Christ is an addition Zooey made to seymour’s story. Seymour taught both of them that playing to the Fat Lady means that everyone in the audience is an important person worthy of respect and love. Zooey adds to this by implying that everyone deserves as much as respect as Christ does. By manipulating Seymour’s fat lady story to tell Franny about christ consciousness, Zooey pretends that this is advice from Seymour – who is the only person Franny willing to talk to about her situation. Throughout the novel, we see Zooey use the fat lady story himself when interacting with his mother, Bessie. Zooey constantly refers to his mother as "Fatty", by doing so, he is trying to remind himself to respect his mother. The Glass siblings have trouble respecting Bessie, however; when they love and respect Bessie, who has Christ within her, they will unite the Christ within them with the Christ within her. This statement about the Fat Lady being Christ affirms the unity of all life and all beings as equally divine and worthy of love. Zooey’s teachings on christ consciousness has proved helpful in bringing Franny enlightenment. This is evident when comparing the endings of Franny and Zooey. They both conclude with Franny lying down and looking up at the ceiling. But, in Franny: "Her lips began to move, forming soundless words, and they continued to move." Whereas in Zooey: "For some minutes, before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, she just lay quiet, smiling at the ceiling." In the first ending, we gather that Franny is mouthing the words to the Jesus Prayer. In the second, however, she is lying "quiet," Zooey had explained to his mother that, if a person says the prayer enough, he achieves a sort of enlightenment: "The idea, really," he says, "is that sooner or later, completely on its own, the prayer moves from the lips and the head down to a center in the heart and becomes an automatic function in the person, right along with the heartbeat". This could be what has happened to Franny at the end of the story. She doesn't need to mouth the prayer anymore because it has become part of her being. Another possibility is that Franny does not rely on the Jesus prayer anymore: “A dial tone, of course, followed the formal break in the connection. She appeared to find it extraordinarily beautiful to listen to, rather as if it were the best possible substitute for the primordial silence itself.” The dial tone, like the Jesus Prayer, is an incessant sound. But, she takes its "wisdom" and knows "when to stop listening to it." This connotes that Franny does not need the Jesus prayer anymore – she has understood the message of christ consciousness behind the prayer and will apply it; she does not need to hoard spiritual wisdom anymore. In either case, Franny clearly reaches enlightenment after understanding the concept of christ consciousness. Therefore, after finally understanding the concept Christ consciousness of the Jesus prayer, thanks to Zoeey’s guidance, Franny reaches her ultimate goal of enlightenment and peace. Thus, Franny’s suffering and confusion due to her inability to speak to her eldest brother Seymour, has made Zooey creatively think of a way for Franny to speak to her dead brother, and through him help her understand christ consciousness, which has finally led to her enlightened at the very end of the novel.