Group: fing-1801 Student: Jumaniyozov Murodbek Short story analysis: a perfect Day for Bananafish

Group: FING-1801
Student: Jumaniyozov Murodbek

Short story analysis: A Perfect Day for Bananafish

1. What can you say about historical content, how did it influence on the short story?

Through his writing, Salinger critiques his cultural environment—the United States in the post–World War II era. In “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Salinger critiques the materialistic consumer society of postwar America, which reveled in excess and gluttony. The country’s economic boom prompted people to buy things that they or their parents had never before been able to acquire. This prosperous period marked a drastic departure from the scarcity necessitated by the war and the Depression that preceded it. During this time, women were the target audience of marketing campaigns for products ranging from kitchen appliances to luxury clothes to magazines. For a returning solider like Salinger or Seymour who was coming home from a devastated Europe, this new American boom led to disorientation and unease.
The criticisms conveyed in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” would not become a mainstream movement for another ten years, and Salinger’s work fits into the larger artistic movement of postmodernism, which began in the 1960s. Postmodernist writers created works that were often minimalist in style, ambiguous in content, and heavily reliant on dialogue to convey meaning. The postmodern writing of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Salinger was the building block for the antiestablishment movement of the 1960s. The antiestablishment movement in literature, music, and society in general rejected the empty materialism of the postwar era and strived to regain a state of childlike innocence. Salinger’s influence on this movement can been seen in writers such as Jack Kerouac and Tom Wolfe, both of whom use outsider antiheros of dubious moral worth.
2. Try to find information about the theme “childhood”
The doctor has to know more facts, that is to say, even about childhood to cure Muriel.
3. Give explanation to the main characters.
Seymour Glass
A man who has recently returned from the war, where he suffered psychological trauma. A strange outsider, Seymour rejects the company of his wife, Muriel, and other adults at the Florida resort where he and Muriel are on vacation. He prefers to play with children at the resort and on the beach. He has an easy rapport with children and fully immerses himself in a childlike world of imagination when he is with them. When a child named Sybil claims she sees a bananafish, a creature that Seymour has invented, he kisses her foot. Seymour ultimately kills himself in the hotel
Muriel Glass
Seymour’s pretty, socialite wife. Muriel is unconcerned with Seymour’s mental condition, although whether she is unconcerned because of indifference or deep love for him is never fully clear. Enamored with beauty and materialistic society, Muriel is firmly rooted in the materialistic world that Seymour rejects as well as in the adult world of womanhood and sexuality. In rejecting Muriel, Seymour rejects both society and adulthood.
Sybil Carpenter
A young child vacationing with her mother. Sybil befriends Seymour on the beach and is able to understand him better than any other character, perhaps because her innocence has been untainted—unlike Seymour, she has not seen the ugliness of the world. However, Sybil is unnerved by Seymour when he kisses her foot in the ocean. Although Sybil is part of the childhood innocence Seymour would like to repossess, the kiss is an inappropriate gesture. Seymour has crossed a line, and Sybil runs away from him when they return to shore.
Muriel’s Mother
A nosey socialite who is frantically concerned with Muriel’s safety around the erratic Seymour. Muriel’s mother reveals some of Seymour’s past transgressions, including strange, dangerous behavior and rude comments to family members, all of which suggest the extent of Seymour’s psychological distress.
Mrs. Carpenter
Sybil’s mother. Preoccupied with drinking and gossiping, Mrs. Carpenter carelessly allows Sybil to play by herself on the beach, unaware that she is associating with a strange man.

4. What does Bananafish symbolize?

Bananafish symbolizes death.