Irony in A Perfect Day for Bananafish J.D.

Salingers The Perfect Day for Bananafish, is a short story about a War World II veteran, Seymour Glass, who has just been released from an army hospital and is on vacation with his wife. Each scene builds up to the very last and is filled with irony in order to provide knowledge about each character who represent an element in the antagonists life. The elements of the post-war world in which Seymour has been submerged seem to take a toll on him and cause him to ultimately take his life. The story opens with Muriel, Seymours wife, trying to get a call to her mother through after being unsuccessful the two previous nights and the better part of the afternoon. While she waits for the operator to ring her room, she reads an article called Sex Is Fun- or Hell; washes her comb and brush; repairs articles of clothing; tweezes hairs from her mole; and meticulously paints her fingernails. While she is painting her nails, the long-awaited ring from the operator comes. Contrary to what might be expected, she takes the time to finish painting her nails and brings a congested ashtray with her before sitting down and answering the phone on the fifth or sixth ring. She does not immediately get up to answer the phone as most would, but finishes what she has to dohowever vain and insignificant the task may be. This shows her strength and self-reliance, which later contrasts with characteristics about Seymour. Once Muriel finally answers the phone, the course of the conversation between her and her mother is both ironic and telling. In the beginning of the conversation, Seymours peculiar behavior and the severity of his seemingly psychological illness is revealed. Among other things, he has damaged Muriel's father's car by driving it into a tree- which he

seems to have a compulsion to do as her mother is alarmed to find out that Muriel has allowed him to drive them to the hotel resort. Muriels mother continually questions her about the condition and conduct of Seymour- not in concern for Seymours well-being, but because shes worried that he might do something funny and harm her. Muriel assures her mother that she is fine and is not going to just pack everything and come home, no matter how much she insists. Muriel also informs her mother that she has talked to Seymours psychiatrist and that he questioned about Seymours health. When her mother asks her why the doctor was concerned about his health, Muriel casually says that [she guesses its] because hes so pale and all. Her response is remarkably dispassionate. Ironically, she then proceeds to steer the conversation towards the topics of gossip, fashion, and the couples less-thansatisfactory room. Muriels preference to discuss the awful dinner dress that Dr. Sivetskis wife had on rather than the well-being of her husband shows her indifference towards Seymour, as well as her materialistic and superficial fixations that are expected of a bourgeois female. In the next scene, Sybil Carpenter, a little girl around the age of four or five, is playing on the beach and goes off on her own to play while her mother goes to have a martini with a friend. Sybil walks a quarter of a mile down the beach, way out of the area reserved for guests of the hotel, where she finds Seymour lying on his back with his bathrobe on. The two then engage in conversation before adventuring out into the ocean in search of bananafish. The fact that he does not converse with people of his own age, but a pre-pubescent child reveals a great deal about Seymour. He chooses the company of a child because he himself is like a child, innocently living in his own world in which he is

separated from the superficiality of modern society and unable to face the realities of the world. From the ironies and implications in the build up of the story, it could be concluded that Seymour killed himself in the final scene because he could not cope with his indifferent wife and the superficial society she represents. But Seymours actions present another possible conclusion. He complains that people stare at his tattoo when he does not have one. He accuses an innocent stranger of staring at his feet when she is merely looking down at the floor. And finally, he puts a bullet through his head, abruptly and unexpectedly. His actions seem to show that he craves attention from the people surrounding him so badly, that he must imagine it. The irony in this suggestion is puzzling. Why would he so desperately want the attention of the society he chooses not to, or can not, engage with? Ultimately, it seems that Seymour was forced to pull the trigger because of his own complex illness and need of nourishment in an superficial and indifferent world. As if he was an enemy on the battlefield, Seymour took his own life and therefore, permanently separated himself from the world with which he could not cope.