A Perfect Day For Bananafish

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Symbolism in J.D. Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger is an entertaining view of the negative and positive aspects of human nature. The nine short stories depict the lives of the Glass family, a family created by Salinger (Salinger). The members of this clan represent the different classes of society as Salinger saw them. Even though the stories and characters carry harsh moral lessons, they are quite intriguing and skillfully written. J.D. Salinger illustrates symbolism in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by the personalities of the characters and the bananafish parable in the story.
Salinger introduces Seymour Glass on the last day of his life (Westbrook). He is on the beach talking to his new six-year-old friend, Sybil Carpenter. She affectionately calls him “see more glass.” While they are playing, he asks her if she would like to catch a bananafish. She questions him and he tells her the following parable:
They lead a very tragic life… they swim into a hole where there’s a lot of bananas. They’re very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in they behave like pigs…Naturally, after that they’re so fat they can’t get out of the hole again. Can’t fit through the door. They get banana fever and they die…(Salinger 16).
In the bananafish parable, the bananas represent the mushy, bland temptations of a materialistic society. A bananafish imprisons itself in a banana hole, and while enjoying these simple pleasures, he gives up his freedom. Banana fever is the disease of an overly materialistic society. Seymour, according to this view, is himself a bananafish, and his suicide is seen as despair over his own banana fever (Belcher). Salinger typically focuses on the conflict between an innocent, childlike character, and the vulgar adult world. The typical Salinger hero is more preoccupied with spiritual realities than with the significance o...