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

A Perfect Day for Bananafish follows the events leading up to the eventual suicide of Seymour Glass. In the story, Seymour is described as a lost spirit who sees himself as being fundamentally different from his social surround following his wartime experience he leaves the war seeing-more and as a result, awakens to find that he has lost touch with the material world. Salinger uses the storys dialog as the medium for conveying Seymours struggle he establishes the shallow nature of the environment Seymour is exposed to using the dialog between Muriel and her Mother while simultaneously giving clues about Seymours character from the perspectives of the two women in his life. Seymours character is built upon further in the second half of the story during the scene in which he converses with Sybil, and alike when Seymour is in the elevator moments before he commits suicide. The subtle clues Salinger weaves into the dialog suggest that Seymour commits suicide to escape the dilemma of e ither conforming to the materialistic world and sacrificing his spirituality, or choosing not to conform and consequently live estranged from his own wife and the society in which he lives. The opening of the story serves to create the precedent that Muriel is shallow. The first gear passage describes how Muriel uses her two and a half hour waiting period before her mothers call. She accomplishes multiple tasks such as painting her toenails, variant a womens pocket-size magazine article, brushing her hair, and removing a stain from a skirt. Salinger describes Muriel as a girl who for a ringing phone dropped scarcely nothing. The references to Muriel as a girl are repeated throughout the story to signify her immaturity her concern for trivial... ...nd his own life. Many of these clues can be build in the storys dialog. They suggest that Seymours suicide is the manifestation of an awakening gained through his war experience he is separated from the shallow environment he lives in and can find no other escape. Perhaps Seymour commits suicide in an attempt to break through the barrier that separates him from Muriel and the rest of society. Or maybe Seymours mental faculties were damaged by his wartime experience, leaving him disturbed and unstable. The text can be read many ways however, there is no single interpretation that captures the complexity of Salingers short story. While the clues that Salinger leaves throughout the story influence the readers perspective on Seymour Glass, ultimately the center and justification of Seymours suicide depends on the readers personal connection to the protagonist.