Video Essay Transcript
J.D Salinger’s short story, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” revolves around Seymour Glass, who is a man on vacation with his wife Muriel in Florida. Muriel’s mother is concerned about Seymour as she believes he was released from the military hospital too early after surviving WWII. This trauma that Seymour battles from being in the war is pivotal as his behavior is strange and unorthodox throughout the story, but his behavior can also insinuate that Seymour is feeling a deprivation of innocence after experiencing combat. This is depicted throughout the story in his interaction with a little girl by the name of Sybil he meets on the beach. As he talks to Sybil and gets to know her, he would eventually make her run away after kissing her foot. Seymour would also encounter a woman in the hotel shortly after and accuse her of looking at his feet, which leads to the ending of Seymour committing suicide with a loaded gun. Although this example does not relate to the idea of innocence directly within the story, it points to his unorthodox behavior that can be connected through his interaction with Sybil. While Salinger’s glorification of childhood innocence is out of the ordinary, he depicts it to show that Seymour could be using Sybil as a coping mechanism for his deprivation of innocence after the war, along with his thought process that shows contrast between the world of adults and children.
One way in which Salinger highlights that Seymour uses Sybil to fulfill his moral injury after WWII is just his observations of Sybil as he says, “She ran a few steps ahead of him, caught up her left foot in her left hand, and hopped two or three times” (Salinger 6). In this quote, one can infer that Salinger is using Sybil hopping as a form of innocence simply based off the fact that it is something a younger kid would do while running. Moreover, Salinger emphasizing that Sybil “ran a few steps ahead of him” (Salinger 6), could be symbolic in the sense that innocence is running away from him after suffering the trauma of being in WWII. In addition, Salinger shows the contrast between childhood innocence and the adult world in this quote as this small observation Seymour makes shows the pureness of thought that children have in acts like running and jumping. In general, children do not care about what the adult world thinks of them when doing acts like this, but in the adult world, an older person would get certain looks, which is what Salinger could be trying to emphasize in this passage.
Seymour’s surveillance of his wife before he kills himself’ could also suggest a loss of innocence. Salinger explains that “He glanced at the girl lying asleep on one of the twin beds” (Salinger 7). It is known that Muriel is a grown woman in the story, but Seymour referring to his own wife as a “girl” could be a symbolic reference to his desire to re-live the innocence of childhood. Seymour would kill himself shortly after this moment which could mean Salinger is trying to insinuate that Seymour finally realizes he cannot return to a world of pure innocence after WWII, so he ends his life to not deal with the struggle of living in the adult world.
Beyond Seymour’s observations, his interactions with Sybil are pivotal to proving the theme of Seymour’s longing for innocence . In one specific interaction between the two, one can infer that this theme is being proven as Sybil starts the conversation by asking “‘Did you read `Little Black Sambo?’ she said. ‘It’s very funny you ask me that,’ he said. ‘It so happens I just finished reading it last night. ‘He reached down and took back Sybil’s hand. ‘What did you think of it?’ he asked her’ (Salinger 6). In this interaction, Seymour tells Sybil that he had read a children’s book recently, which is unorthodox considering Seymour is a grown man, but it goes back to the point that Seymour is trying to live in a world of innocence even though he is in a judgmental and overly conscious adult world. Moreover, he is using Sybil in this interaction to cope with the world he lives in as it is a small getaway from everything he is struggling with in the real world. In addition to this, Seymour acts in desperation while connecting with Sybil to fulfill his hope that there is still some innocence left in the world.
Another interaction that proves Seymour is using Sybil to fulfill his deprivation of innocence is when he kisses Sybil’s foot as Salinger states “The young man suddenly picked up one of Sybil’s wet feet, which were drooping over the end of the float, and kissed the arch” (Salinger 7). Although this is very out of the ordinary for Salinger to put this in the story, it could depict that Seymour is heavily desiring to be in Sybil’s shoes of innocence, hinting why Seymour kisses her feet. This scene could also mean that Seymour is giving Sybil a sign of adoration, meaning he holds childhood innocence in high regard. Shortly after, he accuses an older woman of looking at his feet, which could symbolize the fact that Seymour realizes he will never be in Sybil’s shoes of innocence, which is another possible motiving factor that drives him to suicide. Although this was a weird encounter, it was pivotal to the theme of Seymour using Sybil to cope with his deprivation of innocence.
Throughout Salinger’s short story, the theme of innocence drives the main character to a suicidal state. The idea behind Seymour chasing this high of innocence and realizing he cannot receive it, resulting in death, shows that Seymour failed his attempt at re-adjusting into the adult world after suffering war trauma. Lastly, Salinger emphasizes the innocence of Sybil through Seymour’s interactions with her, and it really sheds light on Seymour’s desire to live in a world where he does not have to deal with the consciousness of adulthood. Overall, this story is great at emphasizing how the adult world can be overstimulating as people forget that they were all once innocent children in a judgmental and overly conscious society, which is a way in which the overall theme of this story relates to today’s society.
Works Cited
Salinger, J.D. “A Perfect Day for Bananafish.” Foresthillshs, 2022, https://foresthillshs.enschool.org/ourpages/auto/2016/9/7/48668131/Salinger%20-%20Bananafish.pdf. Originally published in The New Yorker, 1948, pp. 21-25.
Risher, Nick. “A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D Salinger.” [17:24 minutes] YouTube, uploaded by Nick Risher, 15 Sept. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCkJnZWTy18.
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7875439-a-perfect-day-for-bananafish