--> The main characters of this story are introduced by conversations between the characters
--> A failure of communication can be seen through out the story line but is first noticeable when Muriel Glass and her mother are talking on the phone and can't seem to get through one complete sentence with out being interrupted by the other person.
--> Moreover, Muriel Glass and her mother are found talking more about material possessions than anything else and this gives an insight into how J.D. Salinger wanted to use Muriel Glass to represent the American woman and how materialistic and consumerist people were becoming
--> The conversation ends with Muriel hanging up because she is concerned with the amount of money that the call will be costing her
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| Muriel Glass |
--> The difficulty to communicate is extremely evident throughout this story. Through this failure to communicate properly with one another some characters are left alienated and assumptions are made. One major assumption that was to assume that Seymour Glass is sane and not suffering from any mental disorders when he clearly is.
--> Seymour Glass is left alienated in A Perfect Day for Bananafish and is assumed to be perfectly fine despite signs of him not being normal. Muriel, even if she knows he is not exactly normal, chooses to hide his insanity and chooses to believe that his mentality is intact and that he is fine.
--> One of the big give a ways of Seymour not acting normal is when he goes outside to the beach to lie down but chooses to keep his robe on. Another clear sign comes later in the story when on the elevator he gets angry because he thought a woman was staring at his feet and he yells at her saying that he has two normal feet. Normally one wouldn't say that he is normal because that only helps to bring attention to yourself.
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| Seymour Glass lying on the beach with his bath robe on |
--> Seymour, having been involved in World War II, has trouble defining the line between the world of adult sexuality and childhood innocence.
--> Scarred from his memories of World War II, Seymour finds refuge in children.
--> When Sybil comes over to Seymour while he is on the beach he mentions how he likes her blue bathing suit despite the fact that she had a yellow one on. This shows how despite the obvious, Seymour tries to find something that isn't there, he tries to find innocence.
- The color blue is representative of innocence and the fact that Seymour thought he saw a blue bathing suit shows his search for innocence.
Symbols found within A Perfect Day for Bananafish
>> One major symbol I found within this story was from the authors choice of bringing up feet so often through out the story <<
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| Bare feet can be seen as a symbol of basic humanity. Bare feet are a representation of basic humanity, unbound by the trappings of society. |
--> Through out the story, the feet of different characters are mentioned
- Muriel constantly moves her feet around while talking to her mother
- Sybil steps on a sand castle with her feet
- Seymour makes it an issue when the woman in the elevator supposedly stares at his feet
- Seymour kisses the bottom of Sybil's feet
- At one point Muriel holds her foot firmly in her hand, hopping around while doing so
--> Later in the story when the reader finds out about the imaginary creature, the bananafish, and is told about their cruel existence some more things become clear regarding feet.
--> Just like Seymour tried to find innocence in the color blue, he is trying to find the basic humanity that he lacks now in Sybils feet.
--> He also tries to explain to the woman on the elevator who supposidly looked at his feet that he has two perfectly normal feet, which just goes to prove that he doesn't have normal feet meaning he lacks basic humanity
--> While running to Seymour, Sybil stops for one thing, to destroy the remains of a half broken sand castle. The sand castle can be represent American Society in this situation. Half broken from the war of the previous generation, the newer generation filled with the traits of humanity needs to destroy what was once there to build something new and better.
>> Another major symbol that is found in the story is of course the Bananafish <<
The story of bananafish:
- Bananafish are creatures that get hungry, find banana's in banana holes, over indulge on bananas,get too fat to get out of the hole and end up dying as a result of their over indulgance
- This disease is known as banana fever
--> I found Bananafish to be representative of two things, American society in general and Seymour Glass
--> Bananafish can be viewed as representing American society because of the materialism and consumerism that America started to indulge itself in during that time period.
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| Materialism |
--> Bananafish and banana fever can represent Seymour as well. Seymour attempts to find innocence and to find basic humanity and where better to look than a child. Seymour, when first meeting Sybil, believes that she is wearing blue, the color for innocence, despite her wearing yellow, the color of a banana. When Seymour takes Sybil out into the waters he indulges in the banana he craves by kissing the bottom of Sybils foot. In doing so he sort of eats himself into the hole that he is to die in and ends up digging his own grave. Realizing that he can not attain the innocence that he lost so long ago coupled with the fact that he realized that he was a bit crazy for not realizing Sybil was wearing yellow rather than blue, Seymour ends up in the banana hole.
--> One more thing the Bananafish fish represents is sex. Seymour has trouble finding the defining line between the world of adult sexuality and the world of childhood innocence and this can be seen in the way he talks to Sybil, a girl that is around the age of 6 or 7.
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| Seymour digs his own grave |
--> After the act of kissing Sybil on her foot, Seymour realizes that he can not find the innocence that he desires and immediately goes to his room where he eventually sits on his bed and kills himself
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| The bananafish over indulges and ends up dying within the hole that it got stuck in |
