

Upon returning to the room occupied by his sleeping wife, he fires a bullet from a Ortgies calibre 7.65 automatic through his right temple. While on the beach, Seymour tells a story of the bananafish to a young girl named Sybil. It details a day spent on the beach by Seymour Glass as his wife, Muriel, spends her time in a hotel room talking to her mother about the divergently interesting topics of clothing and Seymour's post-traumatic stress disorder. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is widely praised for its depiction of the shell-shocked Seymour and his failure to conform to postwar life. 124.] Upon its publication, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" was met with immediate acclaim according to Salinger biographer Paul Alexander, it was "the story that would permanently change his standing in the literary community." cite book |last=Alexander |first=Paul |authorlink= |title=Salinger: A Biography |year=1999 |publisher=Renaissance |location=Los Angeles |id=ISBN 1-58063-080-4 p. cite book |last=Alexander |first=Paul |authorlink= |title=Salinger: A Biography |year=1999 |publisher=Renaissance |location=Los Angeles |id=ISBN 1-58063-080-4 p. The August "New Yorker", which at the time had only published one of Salinger's stories, accepted "Bananafish" for publication immediately and, because of its "singular quality," signed the author to a contract giving them right of first refusal on any future short stories. 124.] was an important one in Salinger's career. The story, which was originally titled "A Fine Day for Bananafish," cite book |last=Alexander |first=Paul |authorlink= |title=Salinger: A Biography |year=1999 |publisher=Renaissance |location=Los Angeles |id=ISBN 1-58063-080-4 p.

It is the first of Salinger's stories to feature the fictional Glass family following Seymour Glass and his wife on a second honeymoon, in Florida. It was anthologized in 1949's " 55 Short Stories from the New Yorker" as well as in Salinger's 1953 collection, " Nine Stories". Salinger, originally published in the Januissue of " The New Yorker". If Seymour is filled with shame at his death, it may be that he suspects himself of such "banana-fever." (Maybe when Sybil exclaims that she's seen a bananafish, Seymour thinks he's talking about him.) Go ahead and check out "What's Up with the Ending?" for more thoughts." A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is a short story by J. Which leads us nicely into the discussion of "What's Up with the Ending?" If Seymour is enlightened, then killing himself is a way of triumphing over any material impulses. He doesn't want to gorge himself on bananas. Seymour, who sees more, is aware of this sort of gluttony and wants to avoid it all costs. Carpenter) with their talk of clothes, fashion, or drinks. This is not unlike the materialistic adults in the story (such as Muriel, Muriel's mother, and Mrs.
#A perfect day for banana fish full#
(See "What's Up with the Epigraph?" for an introduction to this theme.) By stuffing themselves full of bananas, the bananafish are focusing physical needs or pleasures. One angle you might take is to think about the story's spiritual or Zen Buddhism theme. It's a terrible disease." (2.71-83) As with most of "Bananafish," there's no one answer or clear interpretation here. Can't fit through the door." "What happens to them?" "Oh, you mean after they eat so many bananas they can't get out of the banana hole? Well, I hate to tell you, Sybil. Naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again.

Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas. But once they get in, they behave like pigs. They're very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. You know what they do, Sybil? Well, they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas. To understand what's going on here, we've got to take a closer look at the text: "This is a perfect day for bananafish. The bananafish are one of the story's key symbols.
