Crystal Holly

What Happened to Poor Seymour? A Psychoanalytic Reading of A Perfect Day for

Bananafish

J.D. Salingers A Perfect Day for Bananafish gives its readers a glimpse into the life of

a WWII veteran trying to readapt into a materialist society. The climatic ending when Seymour

kills himself has left critics digging around for possible motives for decades, some attributing his

death to his severe disinterest in the shallow world, others blaming his newfound enlightenment

(Zen Buddhism) for this sudden suicidal act. While it is important and even understandable to

focus on Seymours motives for suicide, should we look even further? Is there a deeper message

Salinger is trying to convey to his audience? In A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Salinger reveals

the negative impact war can have on an individual by drawing parallels between his own

personal experiences and that of his fictional character Seymour Glass, and shares the harm of

ignoring mental illness.

To understand the message Salinger is trying to convey in A Perfect Day for Bananafish

it is crucial to know of Salingers war history first. In an article written on the Bananafish

author, Charles Legge explains how Salinger got drafted into war in 1942 and eventually went on

a de-Nazification duty which is where he was hospitalised after suffering what was probably

a mental disorder (Charless 28). Although Salinger never publically discussed his time at war,

records and anecdotes given by those closest to him recall how negatively the war changed him.

In a book written on Salinger and his experience, writer David Shields notes,

His intolerance of Civilian life in New York. His flights into isolation. His need for
control titles, commas, everything else. His short temper. His hatred of being touched
by strangers. His driving his jeep like a nutcase. By his own admission, Salinger was a
 condition, not a man. That condition, from 1945 until his death in 2010, was PTSD
(Shields 403).

Even from this very brief description of Salingers life after war, we can see how negatively this

experience affected him. From Shields account, Salinger appeared to be unlike himself,

hotheaded, obsessive compulsive, afraid of intimacy all qualities someone suffering from

PTSD might have. This can begin the first parallel Salinger draws to his character Seymour, in an

attempt to reveal the harmful effects war has on man. PTSD is a mental health problem that

develops following exposure to a stressful event or a situation of an exceptionally threatening or

catastrophic nature and there are several examples Salinger scatters throughout the text to imply

Seymour may have this disorder too (Fry 30). The first example can be shown in the

conversation Muriels (Seymours wife) has with her mother. In the dialogue Muriels mother

says, He said it was a perfect crime the Army released him from the hospitalHe very

definitely told your father theres a chancea very great chancethat Seymour may completely

lose control of himself (Salinger 4). The conversation between Muriel and her mother seems to

hint at Seymour being hospitalized for a possible mental breakdown, like that of J.D. Salinger in

his own war experience.

The parallel between Salinger and Seymour is further matched when, in the same

conversation, Muriels mother asks, Did he [Seymour] try any of that funny business with the

trees? (Salinger 3), to this Muriel replies, Now, please. I asked him to stay close to the white

lines, and all, and he knew what I meant, and he did. He was even trying not to look at the trees-

you could tell. Did daddy get the car fixed? (Salinger 3). The dialogue Muriel has with her

mother also seems to indicate that Seymour is psychologically unwell and has crashed the family

car, much like Salingers own erratic behavior while driving his Jeep. In this instance, Salinger
makes parallels with Seymour to highlight his own personal experiences with the war and PTSD

as a way to show the harmful effects war can have on individuals.

It seems justifiable to count the first and second parallel as coincidental, but when

Salinger makes a third parallel between him and Seymour, it becomes undeniable how deliberate

these moves mightve been. Following WWII, average Americans, with the horrors of war

behind them, were enjoyingeconomic security (Freeman 20). People of Salingers time

werent concerned with mental health issues like PTSD (1) because the disorder hadnt been

given a name yet, and (2) because people were so concerned with shopping and indulging in this

new materialist lifestyle that they ignored real life issues like PTSD. The lack of concern people

had towards Seymour and other soldiers mental states can begin to explain why Salinger had

Seymour not only suffer from post-war trauma, but also commit suicide. To better explain this,

lets look at the tattoo Salinger gives Seymour. This tattoo gets brought up on two separate

occasions. The first account is when Muriel and her mother continue their conversation and

Muriel notes Seymour doesnt like when people look at his tattoo to which her mother replies,

He doesnt have any tattoos! (Salinger 6). The other occasion Seymours tattoo comes up is

when Seymour is on the elevator and accuses a stranger staring down at the floor of staring at his

foot tattoo. Salinger incorporates this tattoo into the storyline so he can show his own experience

with PTSD through Seymour to show how negative of an impact war can have on people.

Seymour does not have a tattoo but because of his PTSD induced hallucinations, he is convinced

he has one. The parallel Salinger draws between him and Seymour is in the lack of care the

society shows towards their respective mental illnesses. Revisiting the quote above, doesnt it

seem alarming how nonchalant Muriel is about her husbands hallucinations? Instead of reacting

to his alleged tattoo with concern, she entertains Seymour and disregards what could be (and
eventually becomes) a very big issue. Even more alarming is how often Seymours mental health

is brought up between Muriel and her mother just to be tossed aside to talk about trivial things

like clothes and fashion. An example of this is seen when Muriel and her mother are still

discussing Seymours tattoo, to which Muriels mother stops to ask Well, how are the clothes

this year?; any further discussion on Seymours mentally state abandoned (Salinger 5). Alan

Blackstocks nicely points out Salingers war writing brings to light this brokenness and need

for healing. It emphasizes the need for neighborliness, a need to put soldiers and others

humanity back in rangr, in order for soldiers and their families to heal and reform community

during and after the profoundly un-neighborly experience of war (Ooms 63). In Salinger

drawing a parallel from his personal experience to Seymours own experiences, Salinger is

relaying an important message that the war has a very negative effect on people and if people fail

to address mental health issues, harm will come from it.

That can also explain the next parallel, which is tricky to understand but very important.

Salingers war experience caused him to develop PTSD and furthermore become isolated from

the rest of his society when no one sought to acknowledge his mental disorder. Likewise,

Seymours war experience and PTSD diagnosis ultimately drove him become kill himself. Both

men felt isolated and eventually withdrew from society. In an excerpt taken from his book,

Shields says of Salinger,

Salinger saw an introduction to combat that I dont think he or, for that matter, anyone in
the army was prepared for. Day One ashore for Salinger wouldve been sheer terror. The
urgency of getting himself ashore, getting set up shore, protecting himself, the soldiers
around him. Fire. Smoke. Yelling. No amount of training couldve prepared him for that.
The experience was brutal and sudden and shocking. It was simply burned into his soul
(Shields 10).
With descriptions of his time at war as brutal and shocking, it makes sense why Salinger

would develop PTSD and then become reclusive when his mental health issues were left

untreated and unnoticed. As Salingers daughter recounts, the experience of war always haunted

her father, Salinger one day telling his her you never forget the smell of burning flesh (in

reference to the dead bodies surrounding him at war) (Shields 158). Immediately after Salinger

became very protective of his life and his works[and] sued to block publications, biographies,

and unauthorized collections of his short stories (Teicholz 120). Salinger had Seymour isolate

himself in the same way except his isolation equivocated to death and that was to show the

negative effects that can arise when ones poor mental health is left untreated. In the text,

Seymour makes up these sea creatures called Bananafish and he describes them saying,

They swim into a hole where theres a lot of bananas. Theyre very ordinary looking fish
when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs. Why, Ive known some
bananafish to swim into a banana hoe and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas.
Naturally, after that theyre so fat they cant get out of the hole again. Cant fit through
the doorthey dieWell, they get banana fever. Its a terrible disease (Salinger 8).

While many dont see the significance of the Bananafish and just write it off as Seymour

showing his lunacy, Salinger actually made a very deliberate choice with the story of the

bananafish that helps to reveal the negative effects war has on man. In the story, the bananafish

are symbolic of the soldiers at war (Salinger and Seymour). The bananas they swim to and

devour are the other soldiers in which they will eventually kill. The hole they cannot fit in is

society because they now have this new trauma and the disease they die from, while

ambiguous can either be guilt or madness. Having made up these imaginative sea creatures right

before his death, it can be inferred A perfect day for bananafish in fact, means its a perfect day

to die. In Salinger having Seymour commit suicide parallel to him isolating himself from the rest
of society, Salinger is showing the negative effects war can have on a person and the dangers of

ignoring someones mental illness- whether it be physical isolation or suicide.

After reading A Perfect Day for Bananafish it is understandable and even encouraged to

question what led Seymour to commit suicide. However, it is equally as important to ask if

theres a deeper message the author was trying to convey? What made Salinger recluse from

society? Can the explanation be found in A Perfect Day for Bananafish? The answer is yes.

Through parallels Salinger draws between himself and Seymour, Salinger relays a deeper

message that war has a negative effect on people and unnoticed and untreated mental illnesses

can have the same effect.

 Bibliography

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