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Symbolic Analysis of 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish' by JD Salinger
Note: I take Seymour to be a standin for JD Salinger. Not only were both men institutionalized due to post-war PTSD but they also have other similarities, such as being Capricorn and dispositionally melancholic and evidently idiosyncratic. Most controversial of course is the interest in childhood innocence which Salinger not only wrote about but also had a history of meeting after his her's came of age. In Bananfish however, the innocence is named Sybil and is the younger and, for Seymour, the more pure for it.
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The book is dichotomized by class status, age, and health, that is, respectively: materially rich vs poor, adult world vs childlike wonder, and normal vs abnormal.
For the former, it is Seymour's wife Muriel (name: shiny sea) that represents all he loathes. Whereas she is a mirror that reflects what he not only wishes to escape but also cannot nor ever be, Seymour (name: the land by the sea) is across the divide: outside looking in. Hence, immaterial, childlike, and abnormal.
For a man like this then, the mindset becomes a vague feeling of lingering in limbo for…something. A man like this already knows he cannot "fit in" and is simply waiting for it to really sink in. Hence, we meet Seymour (land near the sea) by the beach in a dreamy, contemplative, “going with the flow” state. He isn't so much relaxing as he is waiting for something else.
In comes Sybil (the prophet.) Literally, she is but a child. Representatively, she is what Seymour seeks – a prophet. Someone who is, like him, focused on the immaterial world to give him an answer he's been waiting for. Hence, Sybil acts as a prophet of things to come in the story. For instance, she says to her mother, “did you see more glass?” (Sey-mour Glass) A foreshadow and a dark joke for things to come next.
When they meet, it is not the first time. Before on the beach too, most likely. They decide to visit the “sea” and begin dialoguing about the titular bananafish.
> “Well, they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas. They're very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs. Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas." [...] “Naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again. Can't fit through the door.”
In Seymour's description, bananafish are metaphorical of his current headspace. a child-friendly way to describe the strangeness of his position age gapped. Seymour, after all, has gone bananas himself as discussed by his wife over the phone. But not only this. When pressed further by Sybil of the fate of a bananafish too fat to escape, Seymour replies: “Well, they get banana fever. It's a terrible disease."
Throughout their talk, Sybil begins to feel uncertain, reminding him not to go too far off land. A wave comes and reveals one of the most important moments of the story. Sybil sees something, a bananafish which alerts Seymour for the first time. The identity is then revealed to the reader, Sybil saw no fish but Seymour, his head filled with bananas, and has given him the answer he's been waiting for. In his crazy, self referential logic, the world answered through the conduit of a child.
Seymour kisses her feet out of happiness and with respect to her as a prophet then returns to his room 507 (Sybil saw 6 bananas in his head.) The 6 must be removed, zeroed out. And so Seymour takes out a gun and shoots himself dead in front of a sleeping Muriel. Here, Sybil's words echo, “Did you see more glass?”
#entertainment
Note: I take Seymour to be a standin for JD Salinger. Not only were both men institutionalized due to post-war PTSD but they also have other similarities, such as being Capricorn and dispositionally melancholic and evidently idiosyncratic. Most controversial of course is the interest in childhood innocence which Salinger not only wrote about but also had a history of meeting after his her's came of age. In Bananfish however, the innocence is named Sybil and is the younger and, for Seymour, the more pure for it.
—
The book is dichotomized by class status, age, and health, that is, respectively: materially rich vs poor, adult world vs childlike wonder, and normal vs abnormal.
For the former, it is Seymour's wife Muriel (name: shiny sea) that represents all he loathes. Whereas she is a mirror that reflects what he not only wishes to escape but also cannot nor ever be, Seymour (name: the land by the sea) is across the divide: outside looking in. Hence, immaterial, childlike, and abnormal.
For a man like this then, the mindset becomes a vague feeling of lingering in limbo for…something. A man like this already knows he cannot "fit in" and is simply waiting for it to really sink in. Hence, we meet Seymour (land near the sea) by the beach in a dreamy, contemplative, “going with the flow” state. He isn't so much relaxing as he is waiting for something else.
In comes Sybil (the prophet.) Literally, she is but a child. Representatively, she is what Seymour seeks – a prophet. Someone who is, like him, focused on the immaterial world to give him an answer he's been waiting for. Hence, Sybil acts as a prophet of things to come in the story. For instance, she says to her mother, “did you see more glass?” (Sey-mour Glass) A foreshadow and a dark joke for things to come next.
When they meet, it is not the first time. Before on the beach too, most likely. They decide to visit the “sea” and begin dialoguing about the titular bananafish.
> “Well, they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas. They're very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs. Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas." [...] “Naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again. Can't fit through the door.”
In Seymour's description, bananafish are metaphorical of his current headspace. a child-friendly way to describe the strangeness of his position age gapped. Seymour, after all, has gone bananas himself as discussed by his wife over the phone. But not only this. When pressed further by Sybil of the fate of a bananafish too fat to escape, Seymour replies: “Well, they get banana fever. It's a terrible disease."
Throughout their talk, Sybil begins to feel uncertain, reminding him not to go too far off land. A wave comes and reveals one of the most important moments of the story. Sybil sees something, a bananafish which alerts Seymour for the first time. The identity is then revealed to the reader, Sybil saw no fish but Seymour, his head filled with bananas, and has given him the answer he's been waiting for. In his crazy, self referential logic, the world answered through the conduit of a child.
Seymour kisses her feet out of happiness and with respect to her as a prophet then returns to his room 507 (Sybil saw 6 bananas in his head.) The 6 must be removed, zeroed out. And so Seymour takes out a gun and shoots himself dead in front of a sleeping Muriel. Here, Sybil's words echo, “Did you see more glass?”
#entertainment
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