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

In J.D Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Seymour Glass is depicted as a strange outsider among not only his wife and her family, but also society in general. Seymour has just returned from World War II and has taken a trip to a resort in Florida with his wife, Muriel. Seymour is mentally unstable and psychologically damaged from the war, and has isolated himself from both adulthood and the world’s cruel materialism. At the beginning of the story, Muriel is on the phone with her mother, discussing Seymour's erratic behavior. Over the phone, Muriel's mother seems to be concerned more for her daughter's safety than for the well being of Seymour. As they continue to talk, Muriel places great importance on

Often forgotten in the literary world, Salinger is most highly recognized and remembered for his novel, The Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger’s short stories and writings are

Salinger, J(erome) D(avid) (1919- ), American novelist and short story writer, known for his stories dealing with the intellectual and emotional struggles of adolescents who are alienated from the empty, materialistic world of their parents. Salinger's work is marked by a profound sense of craftsmanship, a keen ear for dialogue, and a deep awareness of the frustrations of life in America after World War II (1939-1945).

“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

In A Perfect Day for Bananafish a man with PTSD named Seymour had to feel the harsh rejection of society. Seymour was a war veteran who can back to America and was a little unstable because of it. He had many quirks that made him odd like he was scared of trees and yelled at someone for just looking at his feet. “He told him everything. At least, he said he did--you know your father. The trees. That business with the window. Those horrible things he said to Granny about her plans for passing away. What he did with all those lovely pictures

His less popular books include: 9 stories, Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roofbeam, and Seymour: An Introduction (“‘Catcher in the Rye’ author J.D. Salinger dies”, 1). His most famous novel was The Catcher in the Rye, which was written for younger readers, it had a fresh, brash styles (Diane Telgen, 116). JD Salinger said, “I’m aware that many of my friends will be saddened and shocked, or shock-saddened, over some of the chapters in The Catcher in the Rye. “Some of my best friends are children. It's almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach.” (quoted in “The Catcher in the Rye” 116). This shows that he is disheartened that the readers he directed to will not be able to read his books because of the obscene language, sexual content, and erratic behavior (Diane Telgen, 116). Many people agreed and criticized his

J.D. Salinger is well known for his works. His most famous being The Catcher in the Rye. Two other of his famous works include Nine stories and Franny and Zooey. J.D Salinger is also well known for his sense of humor that he includes inside of his books.

Born on January 1, 1919, Jerome David Salinger was to become one of America’s greatest contemporary authors. In 1938 Salinger briefly attended Ursinus College in Pennsylvania where he wrote a column, "Skipped Diploma," which featured movie reviews for his college newspaper. Salinger made his writing debut when he published his first short story, "The Young Folks," in Whit Burnett’s Story magazine (French, xiii). He was paid only twenty-five dollars. In 1939, at the age of 20, Salinger had not acquired any readers. He later enrolled in a creative writing class at Columbia University. Salinger was very much interested in becoming an actor and a playwright, which was quite odd because he would later in

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.

Salinger had a very impactful yet transient writing career. After analyzing the dates of his first release and his last release, the time span only comes to 26 years. It is weird to think that Salinger’s writing career did not even fill one-third of his overall life. All of Salinger’s short stories were published and produced in commercial magazines. His first story, “The Young Folks”, was published in Story magazine in 1939 thanks to his teacher Whit Burnett, founder and editor of Story magazine. Salinger worked his way up the magazine chain, and eventually found himself at the top, The New Yorker (Telgen). By 1948 with his short story release of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, Salinger was producing exclusively for The New Yorker (“J.D. Salinger”

When one reads J.D. Salinger’s work, they may not know that his writings are affected by how he lived his life. He shows relationship between him (childhood) and the characters in his writings, like connecting how he was as a child and making the characters act very similar. Salinger’s work is also based on what was going on or what he was going through while he was writing.

Salinger loved creating characters with a sensitive personality that reaches out and affects others around him. The character that embodies this the most is Seymour Glass. Seymour is a war veteran that is now mentally unstable. Even the smallest thing can set him off. The thing is his unstableness isn't the only aspect of him, he is also has a childlike thought process and an innocence to him. "If you want to look at my feet, say so," said the young man. "But don't be a God-damned sneak about it" (Salinger). This is an example from the book of such a small thing that set Seymour off. “Seymour constantly does things to unnerve people and to make them notice him. He complains that people stare at his tattoo, even though he does not have a tattoo; he accuses an innocuous stranger of staring at his feet, even though she is not doing so” (Shuman). Since of his childlike thinking process, he wants to be noticed just like any other child does by complaining about the smallest

J. D. Salinger furthers his style by using a variety of elements like repetition, symbolism,

J.D. Salinger (Jerome Davis Salinger) was said by some people to be one of the best American Authors of past century. Salinger’s works reflects the many experiences he had as a child. One of the more common focuses tends to be his fascination with protecting the innocence in children.