A Perfect Day For Bananafish Essay Research
A Perfect Day For Bananafish Essay, Research Paper
Picture walking into a hotel room and happening a adult male dead on a bed. Upon closer review it becomes obvious that he has purportedly taken his ain life with the gun that lay beside him. In speaking to his married woman who was asleep on the bed following to him when this incident occurred, it is learned that he merely walked in the door and shooting himself late the old dark. Out of the many inquiries that could be asked from this narrative, I believe that it is likely highly of import to see why the chief character, Seymour Glass, decided to perpetrate self-destruction.
What I believe to be the ground for Seymour s self-destruction has two basic constituents: the religious corruption of the universe around him, and his battle with his ain religious defects. The religious job of the outside universe is largely a affair of stuff greed, particularly in the West, and philistinism. On the other manus, his ain religious job is more a affair of rational greed and true spiritualism.
In turn toing the self-destruction, the difference should be distinguished between the & # 8220 ; See More Glass & # 8221 ; that we see through small Sybil s eyes, and the Seymour Glass that we see through the eyes of the grownup universe. Even though these two characters are in theory the same adult male, they are somewhat different in some ways. You could besides state that they are the same character in different phases of development. Whatever the instance may be, the & # 8220 ; grounds & # 8221 ; for the suicide displacement somewhat in accent as the character alterations.
& # 8220 ; A Perfect Day for Bananafish & # 8221 ; efforts to typify that the bananas in
See More Glass s narrative represent all of the things which are taken in along the journey to adulthood. If pursued with excessively much ardor, these bananas can forestall religious development and lead to a greater mercenary development. See-More has realized that he can non acquire rid of adequate bananas to do any farther religious advancement in this life, so, instead than waste clip, he commits suicide. This is somewhat obvious when he is taking the lift back
up to his room on the dark of the self-destruction. His arrested development upo
n his pess, which do non resemble the childlike pess that he desires to hold, and the adult female in the lift s scorn towards Seymour s impeaching her of staring at his pess, drive him to dislike the grownup universe even more. He is the bananafish who can non get away the hole and accomplish the spiritualism and childlike features that he so desires. In his sentiment, he believes that this self-destruction will give him the opportunity that he wants and needs: to get down all over once more.
The anti-materialism of the narrative must besides has to be considered in speaking about the self-destruction. Salinger, possibly still a small reluctant in 1948 to abandon his ain anti-materialism that appears to me to be an early preoccupation of his, in favour of simple philistinism and anti-spiritualism, leaves much of the former scattered throughout the narrative. Seymour s
married woman, Muriel s name both expressions and sounds like the word stuff. This could perchance typify that she, like her female parent, is shallow, fashion-conscious, and unwilling to learn German in order to read delicate, bored poets like Rilke. Destroying Seymour even more is Sybil & # 8217 ; s mention to the greedy Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelams in & # 8220 ; Little Black Sambo & # 8221 ; and her connexion to Eliot & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; Wasteland & # 8221 ; . This suggests that even this vernal miss has begun to develop a job with material arrested development and religious disregard. These strains of anti-materialism in the narrative complicate the self-destruction because they suggest that Seymour is choosing out of a universe that is excessively materially inclined for him, alternatively of one in which he himself is responsible for his ain sadness and religious corruption. Both sets of fortunes, Seymour s ain rational greed along with the general stuff greed by which he is certain, genuinely contribute to his self-destruction.
The grounds for Seymour s self-destruction are therefore proven to be muddled in & # 8220 ; Bananafish, & # 8221 ; with several different factors coming into drama. The reading of Seymour obtained from the narrative is that he is troubled by his ain religious defects ( the consequence of excessively much rational hoarded wealth ) every bit much as by the defects of the people and the universe around him. These factors finally lead to his self-destruction.
