A Perfect Day For Bananafish Character Analysis

In the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, by J.D. Salinger, the main character is Seymour Glass, a man that has a disease from the war that affects his mental health. Another important character is Muriel Glass, Seymour’s wife. She is materialistic, and seems not to care that much for Seymour's illness. The story opens with Muriel talking to her mom on the phone, while Seymour is outside on the beach. Seymour says hi to a little child, Sybil. He talks with Sybil for a while about an animal called a bananafish. After talking with Sybil, Seymour goes up to his room, and commits suicide with a gun while Muriel is sleeping. J.D. Salinger’s intention of writing this short story was to show what can happen if you get too materialistic and what can happen if you don’t communicate enough. The first reason that J.D. Salinger wrote this story is to bring attention to what can happen if you get too materialistic. At the beginning of the story, Muriel was talking to her mom on the phone. Muriel’s mom kept trying to voice her concerns over Seymour. From their conversation, you find out that Seymour did some bad things in the past. Muriel’s mom says that she isn’t sure about Seymour, and that maybe he should get some help. But, Muriel

Salinger is about Seymour, a mentally ill war veteran. His wife, very materialistic and greedy, seems to not care about the severity of her husband’s mental illness until it is too late. Salinger highlights some important issues, like what can happen if you get too materialistic, and what can happen if you don’t communicate enough. Salinger included these issues so that the reader would see what can happen if they become materialistic and don’t communicate well, like certain characters did in his story. All things considered, J.D. Salinger wrote “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” to show what can happen if you get too materialistic and what can happen if you don’t communicate