A Perfect Day For Bananafish Essay

Strange. Unusual. Bizarre. Words that come to mind when reading “A Perfect Day for Bananafish.” With the title of the short story one may think it will be a happy story maybe about a girl on a beach. Who one day decides to go swimming in the ocean and on that day she discovers a whole new species of talking fish that look like bananas. This talking fish and the talking girl go on an adventure were they see the beauty of the sea. That would be a happy, fun story. Complete different from what really

painting her nails while waiting for her mother to call; a mentally ill war veteran sits alone in the hot sun on the beach; a little girl contrasting adult corruption and the innocence of youth. These are all characters in J.D. Salinger’s “Perfect Day for a Bananafish.” But what motivated him to write such a story? Was there something in his life that caused him to write the way he did? In this essay we will explore the life of J.D. Salinger and how his life and experiences shaped the way he expressed

A Perfect Day for Bananafish: Societies influence on Character Seymore Glass and his wife Myrial travel to Florida where on a calm and sunny day, Seymore fires a bullet through his right temple. John D. Salinger, in his short story A Perfect Day for Bananafish, describes his own main character, disturbed to an unrecoverable point, a point where suicide is his only foreseeable option. The story begins with Seymour Glass, a war veteran honeymooning with his wife for the second time. Salingers character

Aggressive outbursts, chronic irritability, frequent paranoia and suicide are all greatly feared effects of post-war trauma. This was most prevalent in the mid to late 1900s after World War II. In “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” JD Salinger’s character Seymour Glass exhibits struggles surrounding PTSD. Salinger, a war veteran himself, wrote a series of short stories, one of which was a character who reflected his own post World War II experience. In Salinger’s story, he develops a character named

At the end of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Seymour Glass commits suicide while on vacation in Florida with his wife, Muriel, by shooting himself in the head while Muriel sleeps on the twin bed next to him. It seems like a crazy thing to do. People would say that only someone with severe mental problems does something like that. Seymour is a military veteran, a poet, a “Wise Child,” and an extremely complicated man. A number of J.D. Salinger’s writings reveal pieces of Seymour’s character, including

A Perfect Day for Bananafish “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” put J. D. Salinger on the map. It was published in The New Yorker in 1948, and few short stories in the history of American letters have met with such immediate acclaim. To a modern reader, it is easy to miss what to 40’s readers was the story’s principal and disturbing undercurrent: post-traumatic stress disorder. The late 40’s were in large part a period of reaction to World War II, as exhibited in the burgeoning school of film noir

short story “A perfect Day for Bananafish,” an undercurrent of danger, and possibly death, is introduced to the story. As a recurring motif, death profoundly influences how the characters perceive each other and react to different circumstances. Salinger employs

sense an onset of an event before it actually occurs. This strategy is used in many stories, and can make a story more interesting and dynamic. The story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” by J.D. Salinger, consistently foreshadows that Seymour will commit suicide by describing Muriel and Seymour’s relationship, telling the story about the bananafish, and revealing Seymour’s unique social life. To begin with, Seymour’s relationship with Muriel, his wife, may have been a factor that influenced him

"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" written by J.D Salinger was published on January 31, 1948 following the end of World War Two. Through the use of symbolism and characterization Salinger enhances the theme of The difficulty of true communication. The protagonist Seymour Glass has recently come back from fighting in the war. He was sent home due to a mental sickness in what we would call PTSD. Throughout the story Seymour doesn't engage with the adults in society. During that time PTSD wasn't even

on the battlefields, and the emotional drains of war were elements these men had to carry with them. How were they able to cope with these psychological changes once they got back home to their families? In J.D. Salinger’s short story, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” we get a glimpse into one