A Perfect Day For Bananafish Analysis

“A Perfect Day for Bananafish” By J.D. Salinger is a short story with intense imagery, detail, and symbolism. The story starts and ends with imagery, while also being used heavily throughout the text. The story takes place late 1940’s / early 1950’s and starts with the narrator explaining Mrs. Glass waiting on the phone line to talk to her mom. Mrs. Glass is Seymour’s Wife and Seymour is the main character. The story begins with, “There were ninety-seven New York advertising men in a hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines, the girl in 507 had to wait from noon till almost two-thirty to get her call through” (Salinger 1). This first sentence really starts off the story and makes the reader think. When reading the section about the men with the telephone lines and the young lady sitting in her room waiting with her phone. It creates an image in

“Yeah, your probably right, just a fish.” Peyton shrugged. Suddenly, something hit the boat hard and tilted it to the side. “No that definitely wasn't just a fish.” Peyton stuttered. “Look!” Peyton pointed to a wide, scaly fin sticking up from the warm clear

They faced many challenges, including being stung by jelly fish, getting chased by sharks, and being caught in a fish net. Their unwavering ambition, however, helped them to eventually locate Nemo. While Marlin and Dory were ambitious to find the young clown fish, Nemo was also striving diligently to escape the tank and find his father. He devised a plan to disable the tank’s filter so that the owner would have to remove the fish to clean the tank. Nemo’s ambitious plan ended in victory as he and the other captive fish successfully escaped and returned to the ocean in hopes of finding

Jerome David Salinger, one of the most renown authors of the twentieth century. Salinger’s short stories “Nine Stories” was written after the WWII from the perspective of the war veterans. He successfully manages to create nine different short stories that all carry a theme of innocence. Meanwhile, Salinger expresses both this theme and his mysterious style of writing. Innocence is demonstrated in short stories, such as “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, “Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut”, “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor”. The appearance of children throughout the variety of short stories supports this innocence of a theme.

Jerome David Salinger, better known as J.D. Salinger was the renowned author of the short story, A Perfect Day for Bananafish and The Catcher in the Rye. A New York native born on January 1, 1919, J.D. Salinger began to get published in 1940 before entering what would change his life and writing forever, World War II. J.D. Salinger's writing can be seen as distant due to the events throughout the time he served in World War II. The trauma, locations, and time periods presented in, A Perfect Day for Bananafish has extremely similar composition therefore, the way Salinger writes is influenced with his experience in the war. As seen in, A Perfect Day for Bananafish one of the main characters, Seymour Glass is told to embody J.D. Salinger.

If any single element creates impact in J. D. Salinger's “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” it is the author's setting of a tragedy within a framework of the absolutely ordinary. Seymour Glass and his wife, Muriel, never actually interacting in the story, are staying in a Florida hotel, and everything surrounding them evokes mid-20th century American values. This environment then underscores the greater reality, which is that neither husband or wife is capable of understanding the other, and Salinger's emphasis on dialogue, tone, and dark humor combine to make Seymour's suicide both shocking and, upon reflection, understandable. What primarily evolves is an utter lack of true understanding between the couple.

During Holdens cab ride, he brings up ducks and after not getting the answer he wants about ducks he switched the topic to fish, “All right. What do they do, the fish and all, when that whole little lake’s a solid block of ice, people skating on it and all?” (Salinger). Holden is realizing that he doesn’t feel like the fish because he can’t just go on living normally with all of the changes going on like the fish can. Holden needs to grow up and learn how to cope with changes and find a clear path for himself. Holden keeps repeatedly asking about the ducks during his cab ride, to which the

The human mind, only able to withstand so much pressure before losing control, is like a volcano. The harsh truths that accumulate throughout the course of one’s life can lead to devastation, the eruption of the mind’s volcano. American twentieth century author, J.D. Salinger, illustrates the devastating consequences caused by a buildup of emotions and a lack of communication in his short story, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish.” Salinger “has become, in biographer Ian Hamilton's phrase, ‘famous for not wanting to be famous’ ” (Stevick). In this short story, Salinger details the interactions of the main character, Seymour Glass, with Sybil Carpenter, a young girl. Through these interactions, Salinger provides the reader with a glimpse into

Do you know about the bananafish? Deep inside someone's conscience they might be insane and unstable. They might be crazy and you might not even know it. Throughout the story of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Seymour’s true self is unveiled. The author of the wonderful story is a man named, J.D. Salinger. J.D. Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 and died on January 27, 2010. He was known for his stories that took place in metropolitan settings and had characters that were sensitive. Through the use of symbolism, characterization and foreshadowing, J.D. Salinger creates a tell-tale storytelling style of the story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish.

The style of J. D. Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” is very unique in the fact

What is it eaten by? The main predators of it is other sea jellies in a different species and turtles.

Untainted from the world’s horrors, children are used to counter the lives of adults in J. D. Salinger’s “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor” and “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”. While “For Esmé” and “Bananafish” share distinct differences, Salinger explores the effect of children on war-inflicted soldiers in both. “For Esmé” recounts a soldier’s encounter with a young girl named Esmé days before D-Day and the cost of the subsequent victory on his wellbeing. “Bananafish” delves into the mental hardships of a veteran following his return to society and his interactions with a girl named Sybil. Salinger uses the innocence of youth as a form of reprieve and escape from the horrors of war for both Seymour and X.

As the boys soak silently, Cole notices something in the water. A small salmon. Not wanting to disturb the fish or Peter, he says nothing, but instead thinks of what the fish has to teach him. The tiny salmon darted around, as if not knowing where to go, or what to do. Once, it swam up to Cole, but quickly darted away when it brushed his skin. The fish reminded him of Peter, before he had come to the island. It reminded him of how Peter was so scared, confused, and lost. The difference was, when Peter brushed against Cole, Cole had beat him up, and Peter couldn’t get away. With the fish though, Cole didn’t retaliate, and the fish swam safely away.

As time transitions from one century to the next, countries change and advance socially, and economically. However, this change is not always a positive one. In Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for a Banana Fish”, the protagonist, Seymour Glass, struggles to find his place in society after coming back from the Second World War. Seymour, battle-scarred, developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder while serving in the war and comes back to find that society has grown materialistic. By looking at Salinger’s use of irony and dialogue, readers can see miscommunication, negligence and alienation stemming from materialism in mainstream culture, which most readers do not see; this is important because it builds up the tension that will inevitably lead to Seymour’s decision to commit suicide.

"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" written by J.D Salinger was published on January 31, 1948 following the end of World War Two. Through the use of symbolism and characterization Salinger enhances the theme of The difficulty of true communication. The protagonist Seymour Glass has recently come back from fighting in the war. He was sent home due to a mental sickness in what we would call PTSD.