A Perfect Day For Bananafish Essay

I was never a huge fan of children. I was never the girl to babysit all of the kids on my block. I was never the girl to spark up a conversation with a little girl or boy. I am the younger sibling and I have no younger cousins; I was the baby of the family, so I never really had to deal with children growing up. I never know what to say when I am talking to children because they do not understand the world the same way I do. Up until now, I never thought of that as a good thing. Seymour, a character from A Perfect Day for a Bananafish, is in a similar situation after returning from war with a severe case of PTSD. He talks to the children because they do not understand all of the tragedies of the world. Seymour has an easier time communicating

Every veteran of war you see went through something that changed them, either from their own experience or from their “brother’s” and in the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien it shows exactly what I’m talking about. While using the psychological lens, specifically, Maslow’s Hierarchical Theory of Human Needs and Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale, the reader can see in chapters “On The Rainy River,” “The Man I Killed,” and “Field Trip” that Tim O’Brien is emotionally unstable due experiencing the trauma of war.

​War takes a toll on those who fight, or are affected by it, this is undeniable. Over the course of the 20th Century, within the U.S. Military and Psychiatric Community the way that this effect is identified and treated has changed many times based on the conflict and the mindset of the American public. The purpose of this report is to discuss the history of the mental effect of the trauma created by US involvement in wars within the 20th Century and the steps that were taken in those eras to predict, prepare and treat for those effects.

During World War I, thousands of British soldiers were diagnosed with “shell shock,” a condition which was thought to encompass both physical and psychological symptoms. The discovery of shell shock is typically considered to be an important catalyst in the gradual recognition of mental illnesses caused by combat. However, the characterizations of shell shock as an early discovery of post-traumatic stress disorder made by many historians are false. Shell shock should not be thought of as a credible wartime medical advancement, but as a false and primitive identification of war-trauma.

There is a deep and direct connection between the war trauma and the working of that individual's society and environment. Returning from war they do not feel like themselves. They feel out of place, as if they do not belong and they need to justify their acts. They try to form bonds together trying to build for themselves inner peace with that they did was right. An individual's world becomes an far more dangerous place everyday. Every sound, every sudden movement, every flash of light, every sudden word becomes a message of doom, like a bullet. When they are faced with events which trigger their danger response they got to their safe place trying to forget their past suffering. “Whenever i walk out the door and enter the crowded world, i can feel my heart race in rapid speed, and my vision will blur with my mind in its heels, and i will find it hard to breathe because what if all those people can see how i feel. It's like a target on my back, who can see me is not up to me and it's frustrating because the un-known in each day is killing me”(BGT, 2013). They walk into the world unknowing of what could happen to trigger them. Their anxiety raises, they cannot face it so some hide from the world in isolation.”The intercom squeaked and said “order”.”mama burger and fries,” Norman Bowker said. “Affirmative, copy clear. No rootie-tootie? “Rootie-tootie?” “ You

The effect of combat on the human mind has been noticed often, but very seldom studied. Since World War II and the Vietnam War, America has seen how war veterans have been affected after combat—sometimes, it makes the news. 11% of America’s homeless population are veterans, and most suffer from mental illness as well as substance abuse issues, but often times, this is swept under the rug. Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse-Five, was a WWII veteran himself and understood how war changes people firsthand. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim is drafted for war during World War II and is sent to Germany. He survives the bombing of Dresden, just like Vonnegut did himself. Kurt Vonnegut creates veteran and civilian characters in Slaughterhouse-Five in order to express that humans are

Soldiers with PTSD were known for hallucinating a war zone around them. During their hallucinations, the people surrounding them would be seen as a threat. In the short story “The Red Convertible,” a veteran attacked his brother out of nowhere. Shortly following this attack, the veteran committed suicide leaving his brother forever in pain (Erdrich). Other families were put in the same position as the family in the story. It was unsafe to be around their unpredictable loved ones, and because of this, the war became an even bigger sore spot in the nation’s

Many of the men who returned from the war were suffering from serious injuries and the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and shell-shock. They were too tormented to communicate their experiences and involvements, and took them a long time to recover from the distress. Letters were received from soldiers back home, with families left wondering if this will be the last; ‘Dear Mrs Mack, I am writing to tell you of the death of your son Cpl F J Mack. He was brought in here quite early on Monday morning, wounded in the abdomen. Everything possible was done for him and during the day he seemed to maintain his strength, but towards evening he grew weaker/ died about 8.30pm.

The battlefields of the war portray a frightful image filled with psychological horror and physical trauma. Billy suffers from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder because of the great amount of death and horror he endured in the war. He relives negative past experiences, has trouble remembering, and feels emotionally detached from society. He cannot decipher

He identified and distinguished that most men suffering from the symptoms of “war neuroses” (shell shock), without even having been exposed to the front lines of the war. Victims of shell shock experienced symptoms such as; Hysteria and anxiety, Paralysis, Limping and muscle contractions, Blindness and deafness, Nightmares and insomnia, Heart palpitations, Depression, Dizziness and disorientation, and Loss of appetite (citation). Due to the excepted norm of men inhibiting and repressing their emotions they suffered terrible symptoms. Especially for the officers who had suffered and undergone some of the worst symptoms, because on top of repressing their feelings they needed to set a good example for their men (soldiers) (citation). Statistics show (citation) that shell shock (war neuroses) was four times higher among officers than among the soldiers.

Studies have found that post traumatic stress disorder affects almost 31% of Vietnam veterans. War has a catastrophic impact on people’s health and well-being. Soldiers aren’t only affected physically during war. Many are affected mentally as well. For example, during the war and post war many individuals suffer from what is known as shell shock, which was especially prominent throughout World War 1. Post traumatic stress disorder and shell shock are due to the brain’s failed attempts to cope with their trauma. The novel Slaughterhouse 5, the excerpt from The Yellow Birds, and the short story “Soldier’s Home” all describe the lives of soldiers post war. The repercussions of the traumatic experiences that soldiers survive through during war

When men are sent to war most fear that they’ll never return home but both Tayo in Silko’s Ceremony and Frank Money in Toni Morrison’s Home found their sense of home in the status of the uniforms they wore and orders they followed. Though these character’s appear to exhibit the lasting wound of post traumatic stress disorder in their daily lives after the war and are struggling to cope with there identity as a minority in America without the respect of being a soldier. The continuing effects caused by the traumatic experience of war allows for both Leslie Silko and Toni Morrison to use it to their advantage in narrating the story of these characters by their style of writing and what the characters recall or what they can or cannot remember.

When people think of war, there first instinct is to think about the physical pain soldiers have gone through, the physical demand of training before and during. What people miss is the mental trauma that affects soldiers during and after the war. In today’s society it is much more acceptable to speak about mental health issues due to the war and we have established a term for it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We have established many options for soldiers and families who are affected by PTSD. The two books that I am analyzing speak about the idea of mental health or war trauma during World War I and World War II, instead of calling it PTSD the authors call is shell shock, which is close to the definition of PTSD. The two books that I am analyzing is Pat Barker 's Regeneration, which is focused on a mental institution and how soldiers deal with shell shock and many other internal struggles. The second is Elie Wiesel’s book Night, which speaks about a family that is taken to a concentration camp and is dealing with the mental trauma that they experience and how they are forced to change the way they think and feel in order to survive. Both touch upon very similar themes when it comes to trauma and survival during and after the war.

In Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division are followed through World War II. The viewer observes all of Easy Company’s mental struggles through the war. Within this series, the accuracy in which Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is displayed is a large talking point among scholars. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD, is a problem that any person can develop. After a person is involved in a tragic event in his or her life, there can be emotional scarring that affects a person’s personality and lifestyle. Throughout Band Of Brothers, PTSD symptoms are brought on by a soldier’s exposure to war. John Carman, a movie critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, observes that this series shows war to the viewer in a way that doesn’t add politics and unneeded drama. This allows a viewer to have a better understanding of how vicious war really is. Along with these observations, Carman acknowledges the thorough development of characters and how they are affected by the brutality of war is especially interesting. The severity and occurrence of symptoms of PTSD are studied worldwide. This seems to be an interest of a large number of the academic community because this disorder affects everyone differently. Symptoms of PTSD are not without explanation. Seeing another person die, fearing death, observing tragic events, or being the cause of another person’s death are very traumatizing experiences.

“The Perfect Day for a Bananafish” by J.D. Salinger depicts the tragic life of a war veteran who suffers from PTSD. His wife’s ignorant neglect results the couple to disconnect with each other, contributing to his ultimate demise. In this excerpt, the author successfully integrates imagery to characterize Muriel’s materialistic persona and symbolism to urge the readers to contemplate the detrimental effects of materialism. Through the effective utilization of visual imagery, the author aptly characterizes Muriel as materialistic and vain. Her indulgence towards her appearance is demonstrated through her vanity and wardrobe; she puts on nail lacquer, “twee[zes] out her two freshly surfaced hairs in her mole”, and wears a “silk dressing gown”.