He thinks to himself that she is not too "categorically cashmere sweater and flannel skirt." In other words, she is not too predictable and ordinary.
When the two go to Sickler's, Lane is content because he is in the right place with a "right-looking" girl. After all, even her boyfriend, Lane, tries hard to fit in and look just right. This theme is crucial because Franny is trying to avoid being like everybody else, but she also feels hopelessly trapped. When she makes fun of the girls on the train that are stereotypes of their schools, she is both recognizing and insulting their similarity to all those who attend the same institution. Lane is annoyed when she leaves but tries to look "attractively bored." Commentaryįrom the moment that Franny gets off of the train, she talks about conformity. At this point, she begins to feel strange and excuses herself to the bathroom. She says that she just wants to have someone there that she can respect. Franny counters that they are not "real poets." When Lane asks what a "real poet" is, Franny says that to be a real poet, one must leave something beautiful. He says that she has two of the "best men" in her department, both of whom are poets. She feels that everyone in it destroys literature rather than creating it. She tells Lane that she wishes she had not gone back to school that year, or at least that she had given up the English department. Franny then apologizes for her rant and says that she has been feeling strange. They over-intellectualize literature and ruin it. She tells Lane that he is talking like a "section man." These men, she explains, are the graduate students that help teach her classes. He got an "A" on the paper and wants Franny to read it. Lane is talking about a paper he has written about the French author Gustave Flaubert. Lane and Franny go for lunch at Sickler's, a restaurant where students on the "intellectual fringe" dine. Franny tells Lane that she has missed him and realizes that she is lying. She tells him about the girls that she rode in with who fit the stereotypes of different colleges. Lane asks about a book that Franny is holding, but she brushes off his question. Franny and Lane have a somewhat awkward reunion. In the letter, she discusses her dislike for most poets and keeps telling Lane that she loves him. As he stands there, he reads a letter from Franny. He is waiting for Franny Glass, who is coming in with other college women, for a football weekend at Lane's college. Lane Coutell is waiting on the platform at a train station.
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