Perfect Day For Bananafish

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

O 'Brien illustrates to us the necessity for each man to be connected to their old life, telling a story of Mark Fossie flying in his girlfriend to ease his loneliness (104-05). Each soldier found himself facing insurmountable barriers throughout the war, and these small effects and coping mechanisms were often the only necessity that would give them reason to return home again. They needed personal methods of coping with the war, and this primeval survival was the only way to remain a man.

Not every man who 's fought in a war planned on doing so. In fact, not all of them even want to. It 's rare to find enough people voluntarily willing to lay down their lives for their country, so more often than not militaries used what we would call “citizen soldiers.” Citizen soldiers are exactly what they sound like, regular citizens taken from society and turned into people capable of serving in the military. Although it may seem obvious when plainly written out, citizen soldiers had vastly different experiences compared to career soldiers, and Stephen Ambrose attempted to pin down that specific experience in his book Citizen Soldier. Ambrose uses oral interviews from World War II veterans and other materials to explain the experiences of the common American soldier who served in WWII between D-Day and the eventual surrender of the German forces. However, when examining his book, it 's important to ask how successful Ambrose was in painting an accurate picture of this kind of soldier 's life during his service. Is the information he uses specific to the men who served in Europe, or can it also be linked back to the soldiers in the Pacific? This paper will evaluate his work by comparing it to oral interviews from WWII veterans both from the same areas that Ambrose 's veterans serve in and in locations not included in his work.

Even though soldiers are able to distract themselves from the horrors that they witness on the front, war psychologically damages them and creates the “lost generation”. The young men find it increasingly difficult to think and act with the mindset of a civilian. In war, the men only experience despair, death, and fear, so their mind is enveloped by negative thoughts that

not a memoir--but an angry postwar statement about the effects of the war on the young

During World War II, children, women and families worked tirelessly and contributed to aiding the soldiers during their perilous fights. In 1939 through 1945, American families came together and as a community to work the hardest they ever have. Families helped one another to hold up their country with the absence of their men. “Wear it out, use it up, make it do, or do without.” (qtd. In FDR and The American Crisis), were words stressed to the women and children for support. The sacrifices the families made on the homefront, became just as paramount as the battlefronts. If the choices that were made didn’t prevail, the success of the war wouldn’t have ensued.

A “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemmingway is an intriguing story about a man by the name of Krebs who enlists in the Marine Corps during his attendance at a Methodist college in Kansas. After serving for two years at the Rhine, he returned with the second division in 1919 but Krebs wasn’t in the same state of mind as before he left. The reason why Krebs was so distraught when he returned home was not because of the fact that no one wanted to listen to his war stories but because him and other soldiers were without any real benefits such as medical, education, extra remuneration, or anything to help him get back into the real world. This reason stated is the reason that Krebs and soldiers alike came home from war with nothing to show for

I noticed that that in the Wwii yearbooks that there was a page for young men in the military serving for the war. There was also a section for those that died in the war. I also could see in some the faces that they were sad, and that they were dealing with a lot at the moment. The vibe that I got from some of the staff members and students were mixed, but some of them were very sad. I think at that point in the war, everyone was just anxious to see how the war was going to turn out and if their loved ones would return. I looked at the yearbook for the Class of 1944 Prescott, Arizona.

An extreme turmoil had been taking place during the early 1940’s. The world was at war. Many young soldiers had grown anxious during this upheaval since

The soldiers face loneliness, isolation, the heavy burden of fear, and the weight of their reputations. The soldiers carry such a heavy weight from the past, in the present, and for the future. Even after the war, the psychological burdens the men carried during the war continues to define them. Those who survive the war carry guilt, grief, and confusion.

My grandpa does not remember the start of the War since he was too young, but he certainly remembers things that happened back home during the war, and the joy at the end of the war. The first point that he brought up was practicing for air raids. After the bombing attacks in Hawaii, no one knew where the next strike point would be. As a result, every town practiced drills. He recalls that, “When the siren blew everyone had to pull the curtains so no one could see anything,” because they didn’t want to provide targets if bombers did appear. Many schools also established evacuation plans and held bomb drills, but they often turned “dangerously and embarrassingly chaotic” (Ossian, 26).

Not many people in society can empathize with those who have been in a war and have experienced war firsthand. Society is unaware that many individuals are taken away from their families to risk their lives serving in the war. Because of this, families are left to wonder if they will ever get to see their sons and daughters again. In a war, young men are taken away from their loved ones without a promise that they will get to see them again. The survivors come back with frightening memories of their traumatic experiences. Although some would argue that war affects families the most, authors, Tim O’Brien and Kenneth W. Bagby are able to convey the idea that war can negatively impact one’s self by causing this person long lasting emotional

The relationship between Seymour and Sybil is not out of malice, but indeed justified, due to the difference in values of the time period, Seymour’s lack of sympathy from his social environment, and his fascination with

In “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” J. D. Salinger weaves an innocent enough story that goes wildly astray at the end. Throughout the bulk of the work, Salinger details disinterested and awkward conversations between various parties interspersed with an air of caution. The story culminates with a surprising act of suicide by Seymour Glass, the character throughout which most of the story centers. This abrupt ending is written in such a manner that the reader must immediately reflect upon the rest of the story in order to understand the reasons behind this action. As a whole, Salinger’s short story involves a recounting of important themes from American society in the post-World War II era.

Throughout the story Seymour doesn't engage with the adults in society. During that time PTSD wasn't even known, so the adults thought of Seymour as weird and out of place. As a result Seymour went to socialize with a young girl named Sybil who's only 3 years old. Seymour is able to communicate effectively with Sybil rather than his own wife Muriel. Muriel