Day For Bananafish

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

“Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.” – James Baldwin. “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J.D. Salinger, and “Home” by George Saunders depicts the search the protagonists, Seymour and Mikey, go through to retrieve their innocence that they once lost while fighting in the war. Fighting in any war is absolutely terrifying and can leave permanent damage on someone forever—emotionally and mentally, thus leading them to lose their innocence. The effects that the war has left on them and how it impacts their lives are visible in multiple ways. Both short stories “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “Home” demonstrate the criticism against the materialistic world, the barriers to effective communication and the elusive

The days of their fairytale relationship comes to a rude and unexplainable end that leaves one of these love birds in a tough situation of having a lonely life. The day before a special day for any man or woman would love to have in their life-time,for the lovely Daisy Buchanan her wedding, She’s holding in her hand a letter from Gatsby and with a wine glass in the other preparing to enter her doomsday . The appearance of The Great Gatsby has vanished out of the lovely Jordan Baker’s life when she need and wanted him the most.

The opening conversation continues to impress the shallowness of Muriel’s character upon the reader. The conversation between Muriel and her mother focuses on the serious subject of Seymour’s potential mental instability, but their attitude towards their topic is softened, almost to the point of indifference, by other superfluous subject matter. Muriel’s mother sounds concerned when she warns Muriel that “Seymour may completely lose control of himself.” This is paired with the mention of Seymour’s war experience and a doctor’s opinion of his release being premature. However, these disturbing facts are contrasted by the tangent where Muriel’s mother asks, “’How are the clothes this year?” Salinger uses the contrasting topics of their conversation to destroy the credibility of their judgments. Muriel’s conclusion to her mother’s warnings, “Mother, I’m not afraid of Seymour,” further diffuses their forbidding effect. The dialog is heavy with references to Seymour and the attitude taken by both Muriel and her mother suggest that he does not correspond to their ideas of normal. During their conversation, Muriel’s mother brings up Seymour’s habit of sunbathing while wearing his bathrobe, which she finds unusual; Muriel’s mother asks Muriel if she can make him change, “’my goodness, he needs the sun, Can’t you make him?’ ‘You

In his autobiographical narrative A Summer Life, Gary Soto vividly recreates the guilt felt by a six- year-old boy who steals an apple pie. Through Soto’s reminiscent he has taken us on a journey of his guilt, paranoia, and redemption through the usage of tone, allusions, and imagery.

The soft island breeze blows across the sound and the smell of the sea fills the air in Willow Springs. Meanwhile, a thousand miles away in Lower Manhattan the smell of garbage and street vendors’ hotdogs hangs in the air. These two settings are key to Gloria Naylor’s 1988 novel Mama Day where the freedom and consistency of the Sea Islands is poised against the confinement of the ever-changing city, two settings that not only changes characters’ personalities but also their perceptions. On the surface the two places seem to share no similarities and represent different aspects. There are, however, some similarities, among which is the effect of the setting on the characters. Naylor

The rekindling of this epic “love” tale begins when Gatsby buys a house directly across the bay from Daisy, her husband, and child. They do not know it yet, but Jay certainly does. Every night he walks outside and stares through the fog at the green light on Daisy’s dock. Some would consider these gestures endearing and romantic, but with all of that left aside it still seems as if he is stalking her. He is always searching for her everywhere he goes and is intrigued by the mentioning of her name. She is married to Tom Buchanan, a descent from old money, and is living quite lavishly. She hardly remembers Gatsby even exists until Jordan Baker mentions him at dinner. When Daisy hears Jay’s name a sudden bolt goes through her and she flooded with memories of the past. Everyone at dinner can see how this has affected her, including her husband. Nick, who is unaware of the situation, is surprised at what he has seen.

Through the use of foreshadowing, similes, and first-person point of view, the author’s overall argument in “Pancakes” was to show that it is impossible to be perfect in life. First, foreshadow that the author used in the story was to emphasize Jill’s control over her flawless life to when she loses control. Then, similes were to provide more details and descriptive images on Jill’s skills compared to a hawk which becomes a disaster when a mob of tourists arrives looking like lions. Finally, the first point of view, the story shows Jill’s thoughts and her feelings in how she managed to stay perfect because of her full perception on her problems. As a result, based on Jill’s story in “Pancakes,” life cannot be controlled in a perfect

Two wealthy lovers “swimming” around each other are comparable to goldfish in tanks, relentlessly pursuing each other’s love and their own dreams. The actions and feelings of the male goldfish in “(love song, with two goldfish)” by Grace Chua mirror those of Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Their tragic love stories are not complete without the female goldfish and Daisy Buchanan’s flirtatiousness and fickleness. The male swims around his love for many years and dreams of all the activities they can do together as a couple. However, the female does not share the same level of emotion as the male, and their stories do not have happy endings. Both the poem and novel illustrate the relentless pursuit of a passionate male who is rejected by a fickle female lover who values wealth and status over true love.

In J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories there are many tales centered on children, who are often depicted as a symbol of hope and connected with the values that stand in contrast to the ones typical of the adults corrupted by materialism. In my essay, I would like to concentrate on the portrayal of children in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “Teddy”. Even though the way these characters are depicted is similar, a child protagonist in each of the stories is representative of different things. While Sibyl can be seen as a prototype of a childlike innocence, purity and simplicity, Teddy can hardly be considered a prototypical innocent child. Despite the simplicity of Sibyl’s thinking, her presence and behavior help the reader draw many complex

            On the exterior Nicole Diver?s childhood fits all the requirements of a perfect upbringing as well, however, like the American Dream, it, too, was imperfect.  Nicole was born into an affluent family and she was ?a perfectly normal, bright, happy child? (Tender is the Night 126).  However, after the death of Nicole?s mother, her father began to have an incestuous relationship with her.  Nicole maintained the appearance of being ?normal?, but she eventually began to suffer from mental illness because of her past abuse.  ?She had a fit or something-the things she said got crazier and crazier . . . Almost always about men going to attack her, men she knew or men on the street ? anybody ?? (Tender is the Night 127).  Nicole was diagnosed as having a ?divided personality?(Tender is the Night 128) and she underwent many years of therapy to rehabilitate her from her past sexual abuse.  Both Nicole and Daisy?s childhood have the outward appearance of being perfect, however only Daisy?s childhood truly was.

Even though, jerry wants to be accepted and in control of his life, the harsh reality is Jerry’s identity wants to be with his mother. Further throughout the story the tunnel is shown as the symbol of the story; letting the reader know that Jerry senses that it is the door to his identity. Additionally, the chronological structure is effective throughout the story in showing the process of growing up and an insight into Jerry’s transformation. Moreover, the 3rd person omniscient narrator and formal register presents the character of Jerry and his mother in a distanced way and without a biased perspective. This suggests the sense of detachment and alienation that Jerry is starting to feel from his mother as he is growing up and wanting to make his own choices. The story is firstly introduced with a description of the mother carrying a bright striped purse. It was this and other uses of describing Jerry’s surroundings with the use of bright colours symbolising jerry’s childish world and thoughts. In addition, the thought of jerry’s childish thoughts shows his struggle to establish his own identity. The author writes that Jerry goes swimming “over a region where rocks lay like discoloured monsters under the surface”. The simile shows that even though Jerry wants to be independent and swim alone in the bay, he’s terrified of being alone in the water and not seeing his mother again. Briefly, Jerry learns that you cannot

Both Michael Crummey’s “Heartburn” and Lisa Moore’s “The Lonely Goatherd” explore the damaging impacts the lack of communication has on a relationship. Both Carl and Anita’s relationship in “The Lonely Goatherd” as well as Georgie and Sandy’s relationship in “Heartburn” are weakened due to the lack of communication. This idea is shown in both short stories through the use of foils, specifically Hans and Carl as well as Everett and Sandy ; It is also demonstrated through the use of symbolism of Signal Hill as well as using the excuse of heartburn to cover up the dreams Sandy has; It is shown lastly through the dramatic irony used in both stories. These elements demonstrate how the lack of communication leading to the downfall of relationships.

In Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ 2006 movie Little Miss Sunshine, they depict the tribulations of a dysfunctional family trying to get their daughter to a beauty pageant, while encompassing strong portrayals of common issues in the United States today. It communicates the individual’s struggle to be perfect, as well as the difficulties of the average middle class family in society. In this paper I will analyze three characters; Olive, Dwayne, and Richard Hoover, identifying their life stages, psychosocial development, role in the family and their resiliency through the stories challenging circumstances.

“Big Two Hearted River”, a semi-autobiographical short story by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about the main character, Nick, returning to Big Two Hearted River in order to recover from his inner wounds. Nick Adams goes on a journey alone in nature for a therapeutic purpose as he suffers from PTSD. However, Hemingway purposely avoided any direct discussion regarding to Nick’s mental wounds. The absence of the discussion is contributed by Hemingway’s writing style, the Iceberg principle. Hemingway focuses explicitly on what occurs on the surface without mentioning actual theme. This indicates that the theme of self-healing cannot be uncovered by simply looking at the text itself. In order to comprehend the actual theme of the story, the character development of Nick must be examined. This is possible since Nick Adams is a recurring character of Hemingway’s stories. The two preceding stories of “Big Two Hearted River”, “Now I lay me” and “A Way you’ll Never Be”, directly discusses Nick’s suffering from shell-shock and how he comforts himself by returning to Big Two Hearted river in his mind. The two short stories will be analyzed and connected to “Big Two Hearted River” in the essay first. This will provide a strong understanding of Nick’s psyche and the reason behind his return to nature. Then, “Big Two Hearted River” the short story itself will be carefully analyzed.