van der Schijff 1 Christian van der Schijff Ms.

Bronstein AP Senior English B Period 21 November, 2011 Innocence Lost J.D. Salingers A Perfect Day for Bananafish is a short story about a man who seeks to rediscover his innocence, as he has lost it at war and has severe psychological problems; Seymour is disturbed as he has lost his innocence in war and has seen the ugliness of war. The entire story is ironic in that there is no communication between adults, but due to Seymours search for innocence he is able to communicate with a young girl. It is also ironic that it is summer within the story as the story ends with death, something associated with winter when using seasons within a text. There is also sexual tension, as Seymours only connection is with a young girl and she rejects him. Seymour is a troubled young man. There is no communication throughout the story neither between the husband and wife, nor between the wife and her mother as the daughter fails to get the point across to her mother that she believes that Seymour is not mentally insane. In fact, there is no communication between any adults, as there is a search for innocence coming from Seymour. Not once in the story does he talk to his wife, and the only time he talks to another adult, he accuses her of being a God-damned sneak(Salinger 17). The lack of communication contributes to the idea that Seymour is mentally ill, it shows that he can no longer function in a normal society, he is constantly trying to remove himself from society; walking alone on the beach, playing piano away from his wife on vacation,

van der Schijff 2 sitting alone on the beach. Ironically the only person that Seymour is able to communicate with is Sybil, a young girl vacationing with her mother. Once again, Sybil is not able to communicate with her mother, showing the lack of communication throughout the story. The young girl is innocent, something that Seymour seeks to be, as she is the only character in the story that he can successfully communicate with. Seymour wants to regain innocence, he wants to find that bananafish, his made up creature, which he tells the little girl about. The bananafish represents his innocence and he goes on a quest with Sybil to find it, but the real reason for a quest is always selfknowledge(Foster 3). The self-knowledge that Seymour seeks is the innocence. He unsuccessfully reaches the innocence, as he ruins the one relationship he had, by kissing the feet of the young girl. She is disgusted by it and runs away, once again leaving Seymour to himself and no one to communicate with it. It shows that he is not innocent but instead full of adult sexual tension as he kissed the feet of the young girl, something the young girl rejected. Seymour no longer knows how to cope with his emotional distraught due his psychological state as well as his lack of communication with anyone in the outside world other than himself. He knows he cannot escape the adult world and cannot attain the childhood innocence he so dearly seeks. He decides to end his struggle with it and escapes with death. He kills himself. The fact that the short story is based in the summer is ironic. Summer is supposed to represent adulthood romance and fulfillment and passion(Foster 178). Salinger purposely makes summer in Florida, a tropical place as the setting for a purpose: to further portray the isolation that Seymour is in due to his mental state. The popular vacation spot is a place to go with a spouse or loved one to get some time alone away

van der Schijff 3 from the rest of the world and have a romantic get away. Ironically, for Seymour it is the opposite in that he spends all of his time there away from his wife, and the only time he is seen with his wife in the story she is sleeping while he shoots himself in the head. Irony is prevalent throughout the story, Seymour lacks commincation, especially between his wife and himself, she believes that he is mentally sane and perfectly fine, but on the contrary he is not okay, he is emotionally distraught due to war and seeks innocence. The only person he can talk to is a little girl but due to his loss of innocence and his adult sexual identity causes him to lose the one person he could communicate with, and he kills himself. Seymour Glass is a distraught man who lost his innocence while at war and he saw the ugliness of the world. He sought to regain his child-like innocence by talking like a child to another child searching for the elusive bananafish that stands for his own made up innocence. He soon finds out that he cannot attain the innocence that he is searching for and can no longer take the isolation and loneliness. He commits suicide in front of his sleeping wife, once again not showing any communication or understanding with her. Salingers A Perfect Day for Bananafish ends up being a day of death and tragedy for the young man known as Seymour Glass.