Essay on Finding a Way Out: J.D. Sallinger

A perfect day for a bananafish is a short story written by the author J. D. Salinger and published in 1948. The story starts off with Muriel Glass, a pretty, materialistic wife to Seymour Glass, in her hotel room waiting for a phone call. In the meanwhile she spends her time trying to complete small tasks, cleaning her dress, washing her comb and brush, and reading a magazine. After roughly two and half hours finally the call that she had been waiting for was ready, she picks the phone up and it speaks to her mother. After a brief misunderstanding between the Muriel and her mother they finally begin their conversation over the phone. Her mother was quick with the questions asking everything from why she didn’t call her as soon as she made it took her vacation spot, how the drive down there from New York, and her mother was especially interested in how Seymour behaved on the drive down to their vacation. Muriel quickly answered as many of her mother’s questions as she could and assured her that everything had gone well on their drive down and that Seymour had acted perfectly and had not attempted anything out of the ordinary. Meanwhile her mother continued questioning about Seymour and his mental state, one that Muriel had no interest talking about, telling her continuing to tell her mother that Seymour was completely fine. Her mother even began to question had he attempted to do anything “funny” and they both said to each other, "Well, you sound that way. I mean all he does

When J.D. Salinger went to war, he not only affected his own life, but also the life of Holden Caulfield. Similarities between Salinger and Caulfield are too numerous to write off as coincidence: both went to and flunked out of prep schools, and both had a penchant for language classes. Salinger’s life greatly impacted the plot and style of his works because Salinger used himself as inspiration for Holden, as demonstrated through “I’m Crazy”, “Slight Rebellion off Madison”, and The Catcher in the Rye.

The unresolved conflicts between John and Abby are one of the strongest demonstrations of this theme in the story. The conflict between John and Abby is that they never resolved the affair they had and they never came to a understanding between themselves. Abby has not given up on John and fights throughout the story to get him

Holden grows with misery in his private world filled with depression and loneliness. The unconscious state unravels the psychological conflicts of the author’s life to works of fiction through the character. Examining Salinger’s life, it is obvious he has had traumatizing experiences similar to Holden’s. Salinger was drafted into the army in 1942 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. After the war ended, Salinger returned home and suffered a nervous breakdown and was briefly hospitalized. Salinger’s breakdown is similar

There is an urgency even in his teasing of the little girl, as when he speculates as to what Muriel may be doing just then: “She may be in any one of a thousand places. At the hairdresser's. Having her hair dyed mink. Or making dolls for poor children, in her room” (Salinger 6). The answer to Sybil's question is clearly satiric, if not mocking, but more important is the underlying inability to understand how such trivial interests can have meaning for his wife. The dismissive answer also expresses his frustration, in that he seems to have long been lost as to Muriel's nature, he is weary of trying to comprehend it, and he would rather engage in surreal conversation with the little girl. The talk is remarkable in that Seymour uses Sybil to obliquely express his confusions and his visceral certainties about existence itself, which would certainly bore or annoy Muriel. When, for example, Sybil reveals jealousy over his attentions to another little girl, Seymour comforts her through his existential and surreal perception of life: “'I pretended she was you'” (Salinger 7). Sadly, Sybil ignores the kindness and this is then another instance of Seymour's being disregarded; Muriel, in other words, is as dismissive of his nature as a small

Since the bananafish has eaten so many bananas, the fish becomes “so fat they can't get out of the hole again. Can't fit through the door” (Salinger). Naturally, once the bananafish dies in the hole after becoming trapped and contracting “banana fever. It's a terrible disease” (Salinger). The death of the bananafish through its own gluttony heightens the effect of the motif of death throughout the short story.

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.

Jerome David Salinger’s only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is based on the life events shaping main character, Holden Caulfield, into the troubled teen that is telling the story in 1950. The theme of the story is one of emotional disconnection felt by the alienated teenagers of this time period. The quote, “ I didn’t know anyone there that was splendid and clear thinking and all” (Salinger 4) sets the tone that Holden cannot find a connection with anyone around him and that he is on a lonely endeavor in pursuit of identity, acceptance and legitimacy. The trials and failures that Holden faces on his journey to find himself in total shed light on Holden’s archenemy, himself.

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.

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 is riddled with clues from the very beginning that everything isn’t necessarily how it’s supposed to be. While reading the book you’re constantly getting thrown clues at your face about this character Seymour. On the second page of the story Muriel’s mother says to Muriel “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 did he did with all those lovely pictures from Bermuda – everything.” Once you hear the mother’s statement it has one wondering; Seymour has built himself quite a reputation already with the parents of Muriel, what possibly could be triggering him to act this way.

When he goes back to the hotel, by the elevator a he accuses a woman for looking at his feet. Then he goes to his room and shoots himself through his right temple. I believe that the the theme of the story is guilt, and the author shows that by showing Seymour kissing Sybil’s foot then killing himself after a woman looks at his own. The author uses setting in the story like its paradise.

These internal conflicts seem to be caused by Jane's own insecurities. She cannot speak to anyone about her worries, and thus they fester. Each of the problems also intersect, since Mr. Mason's suspicious nature affects Mr. Rochester with something that Jane does not know about. Rochester's anxiety over Mason appears to hinder his ability to think properly about his actions, since he wants to marry a woman he does not even love. Without these conflicts, there would be no interesting interactions between the characters, making them very boring and

“A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” by J. D. Salinger’s, begins with a woman named Muriel Glass, wife of Seymour Glass , who s on vacation at a Florida beach resort with Seymour. She is sitting in her hotel room, Room 507, reading a “women’s pocket-size magazine, called, and moving the button on her Saks blouse, when the long-distance call she has put through to New York finally comes through. She finishes lacquering a fingernail before picking the phone up; she is “a girl who for a ringing dropped exactly nothing.”

One author states in the quotations “Such innocence and freedom from the hypocrisy of adulthood has vanished from his own life” (“A Perfect Day for Bananafish”). This author is uncovering when people get older they lose how innocent and free they were as a child. They get too consumed in how society makes adults seem, they want to be just like that. So they lose themselves in order to fit in. To show what happens when some people realize this and can not handle it “Then he went over and sat down on the unoccupied twin bed, look at the girl, aimed the pistol, and fired a bullet through his right temple” (Salinger ). The author is illustrating that he started to get pulled into adulthood. When someone gets pulled into adulthood they feel the only way to grow up is to follow what everyone else is doing and not follow what they want to do themselves. Seymour mostly hangs out with children because he can see the innocence and purity inside of them. After the war he realizes he was starting to lose his own childhood innocence and freedom and did not want that to happen. Since he felt that way, he thought the only way to fix it and not get pulled into society was to kill himself. The author seems to be exploring the idea that as people get older they start to be sucked into the idea of how they should look and act. Nobody keeps their innocence from a child and do what they want to do. Seymour is disappointed at that