Many critics consider JD Salinger a very controversial writer, due to the topics he writes about.. JD Salinger's works were generally written in two time periods. The first time period was during World War II, the second time period was during the 1960s. Critics believe that the works of the 1960s time period were very inappropriate, due to the problems he wrote about. The main characters were generally misfits of society. In most of his works, the protagonist of the story goes in search of happiness. Salinger does not conform to material happiness; the characters experience spiritual happiness. The characters are generally in a bad state at the beginning, until the end of his works they undergo changes that change them for the better. JD Salinger's works show the pursuit of happiness through religion, loneliness and symbolism. Salinger's works often use religion to represent comfort. In Salinger's Nine Stories Franny Glass continues to recite the "Jesus Prayer" to cope with the suicide of her brother Seymour (Bloom in Bryfonski and Senick 69). Salinger is able to use this prayer as a means of comfort for Franny. Prayer represents Franny's last hope in this situation. Franny would be lost if there was no prayer. (Bryfonski and Senick 71). Salinger shows us comfort in Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caufield, the protagonist, is very desperate after losing his girlfriend, so Caufield reads a passage from the Bible. This helps Holden change his outlook on life (Salzberg 75). Holden was all alone at this point and had no one to turn to, until he found the Bible (Salzberg 76). In both stories the characters had found themselves in bad situations. The characters in these works have obstacles that they must overcome to achieve happiness (Salzman 34). Happiness is the very substance to which all these characters aspire in Salinger's works. Salinger uses religion in his works to comfort them so that they can proceed in their quest to achieve happiness. Salinger uses religion as a means of liberation. Salinger uses much of Zen philosophy, as in the case of Nine Stories, to achieve this liberation (Madsen 93). In Nine Stories one of the characters, Seymour Glass, is portrayed as Buddha, in the sense that he wants to be liberated as Buddha was in his life (Madsen 93).