Characters in A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger Essay

Char ventureers in A Perfect twenty-four hour period for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger The characters in Salinger?s ?A Perfect Day for Bananafish? seem to comprise in opposite worlds. On one hand, Salinger creates Muriel to represent materialism and shallowness and on the other hand, he creates Sybil to provide justification of the child-like innocence seldom found in society. Salinger?s main character, Seymour, is aware of the superficiality express in Muriel?s world and chooses not to be apart of it. Seymour wants to be a part of the simple immaterial world that Sybil represents. Nevertheless, Seymour find himself pin down between two worlds unable to regain the one he desires. Therefore, Salinger bases ?A Perfect Day for Bananafish? on Seymour?s disillusionment with life and his unfitness to regain a child-like perception of the world. Salinger?s portrayals Seymour and his world are exposit below. Sybil is composed of all the characteristics Seymour is seeking. She is youn g, innocent and childlike and therefore not foul by the materialism, mistrust and snobbery known to society. Furthermore, her actions suggest that she relates to Seymour because he seems to act like a child somewhat similar to herself (for example Sybil feels insure around Seymour simply feels insecure when sitting with her own mother). This would imply that Seymour does not appear abnormal to her because she, unlike most, she has the ability to see finished his outside(prenominal) and is not intimidated by what she has found. In the later part of the tommyrot she continually repeats the phase ?see more glass?(10) using the call ?glass? to describe her own unique ability to see through the transparency of superficial people (much like her own mother). What Seymour respects... ...g that was originally forge to portray the image society would expect of a ?Lady? of her caliber. In turn, it does not seem to matter who Muriel is in Salingers?s story but what she represents. In conclusion, Seymour is similar to the bananafish as he swam his focussing up the rain cats and dogs of life ingesting the materialism and superficiality that past him on his journey. Half way up the stream he stopped pondered why he had however bothered in the first place. Now he cannot go choke down the stream (to Sybil) against the current and cannot bear to continue (with Muriel). At this mind Seymour is described as having ?banana fever? or becoming so engulfed in materialism. His only rational option would be to stay in the banana hole and die. Work CitedSalinger, J.D. Nine Stories A Perfect Day for Bananafish. United States Little, Brown and Company Limited, 1991.