A Perfect Day for a Bananafish Analysis

The story revolves around the protagonist who has just come from war, his wife Muriel, his mother in law and a child named Sybil. The setting is in a hotel in Florida where the couple, Seymour Glass and Muriel Glass, has come to a vacation away from their home in New York (Salinger, 3). Mrs. Glass is indoors as she awaits and finally makes a call to the mother. Seymour on the other hand is outside near the ocean, and occasionally plays the piano when he gets back to the hotel. Seymour goes further to explain that the bananafish are very greedy that a single one can eat up to seventy-eight bananas. This is the epitome of greed since even a single human being cannot eat this much bananas.

This number could have been a probable exaggeration to show the extent of greed. After consuming the bananas the fish are unable to get out of the holes owing to their large sizes. Due to this they end up dying (Salinger, 8). The names used in this story are also symbolic. The name of the protagonist, Seymour, sounds like ‘see more’. Sybil even refers to him so (Salinger, 6). True to this name, or the pronunciation of it, Seymour has indeed seen a lot of things having been involved in the war. This characterizes him as an introspective person. His suicide is similar to shattering of glass (Gwynn and Blotner, 20) which is an irreversible act. Sharon Lipschutz’s name is also symbolic. The second name sounds like ‘lips shut’ which implies not talking.

In associating Lipschutz with Seymour, it can be interpreted that he prefers to keep his lips shut about the destruction that materialism has on people that he has seen. This is especially true when he is around adults as he is okay talking with children, maybe owing to his perception of their pure and innocent nature. She also mends her Saks blouse. The mention of the brand is a clear indication of materialism as it shows she is interested in labels. While talking to her mother about a psychiatrist she met at the bar, her major concern in the dress worn by the psychiatrist’s wife and not actual helpful information that would be of use to her and the marriage.

The phone call between Muriel and her mother also reveals shallowness (Sprately, 5) and the inability to communicate effectively (Sviatko, 33). They cut interrupt each other and respond without listening to one another (Sprately, 14). Gwynn and Blotner dismiss her for her inability to recognize the worth of poetry (19). Another symbolic aspect in the story is the color blue. In literature, blue is often associated with innocence and purity. Seymour is wearing royal blue trunks beneath the robe which he removes as he goes into the ocean with Sybil (Salinger, 7). The blue trunks symbolize that he has or is pursuing innocence and purity in his life post his involvement in the war. This can be symbolically interpreted to mean that she has removed innocence and purity out of herself having fallen to the standards of materialism and appearance (Genthe, 171).

This separation of Seymour from people and even the wife leads to his suicide (Hassan, 145). The children, Sybil and Sharon Lipschutz are symbolically used to represent innocence and purity in the society. In the society, children are often characterized with innocence (Spratley, 3) as they have not been exposed to the vices in the world. Seymour tells Sybil that he likes Lipschutz because she is not mean to the dogs at the hotel lobby (Salinger, 8). Therefore his dissociation with adults indicates that he does not wish to be corrupted further and would rather learn the way of children. As a former soldier involved in war, he is having post-traumatic stress disorder which we can tell from the phone call between Muriel and the mother.

The mother is constantly concerned if the daughter is okay and if Seymour has ‘tried anything’. He seems to have had an outburst on Muriel’s grandmother. Her mother gets worried that he drove which implies that he is in a bad mental state (Salinger, 3). He refers to the woman as being a ‘God-damned sneak’. This irritates her and she leaves the elevator. As Seymour leaves Sybil, he kisses her foot in a non-sexual manner. Hamilton describes this kiss as a ‘sexless and universal mark of humanity’ (28). This short story by Salinger is a depiction of the reality of capitalism as shown through a protagonist who is striving to live a less materialistic-driven life (Spratley, 1). 28 Oct. 2007 http://www. jstor. org/. Grunwald, Henry Anatole.