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world drives
Seymour to madness; others draw a connection to post-traumatic stress. According to critic Janet Malcolm, the world portrayed in the story is both tangled and simplified by Salinger. This "dualism" can be found in other works of Salinger, as he repeatedly depicts life "as a battleground between the normal and abnormal, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the talentless and the gifted, the well and the sick."
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little girl, Sharon
Lipschutz, to sit with him the previous night as he played the lounge piano for the hotel's guests. Seymour attempts to placate Sybil by suggesting they "catch a Bananafish", but Sybil insists that Seymour choose between her and Sharon Lipschutz. Seymour responds that he observed Sybil abusing a hotel patron's dog, and the girl falls silent.
184:, Salinger's agent, received a letter from William Maxwell, a fiction editor at the magazine. The letter, from January 22, 1947, stated: "We like parts of 'The Bananafish' by J.D. Salinger very much, but it seems to us to lack any discernible story or point. If Mr. Salinger is around town, perhaps he'd like to come in and talk to us about New Yorker stories."
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disorder. Muriel's mother is concerned by reports of her son-in-law's increasingly bizarre and anti-social actions, and warns her daughter that the doctor said he may "lose control of himself". Muriel dismisses her remarks as hyperbole, regarding her husband's idiosyncrasies as benign and manageable.
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Much of the criticism of the story involves the character of
Seymour Glass, who appears in several other Salinger stories. Critics interpret evidence from the story to determine the cause of Seymour's suicide; conflicting reasons appear in other stories about the Glass family. Some believe the entire
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The story is set at a large seaside resort in
Florida. Muriel Glass, a wealthy and self-absorbed woman, phones her mother from her suite to discuss her husband Seymour, a World War II combat veteran recently discharged from an army hospital; it is implied that he was being evaluated for a psychiatric
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Children figure prominently in
Salinger's works. Seymour's sympathetic, affectionate interaction with children is contrasted with the detached and phony behavior of adults. In the aftermath of his interlude with Sybil, Seymour "has drawn his own conclusions regarding the makeup of human beings and
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observes that the stories evolve chronologically. They change in a way that mirrors
Salinger's personal life and his experiences with religion. Many scholars and critics have analyzed and reviewed the character of Seymour Glass in regard to his wartime experiences and suicide. Salinger's daughter,
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Before publication of the story, Salinger had reworked the details in a meeting with
Maxwell. Originally, the story consisted merely of Seymour's incident on the beach with Sybil Carpenter and the subsequent suicide. Maxwell argued that there was no clear explanation for Seymour's killing himself.
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Seymour places Sybil on a rubber raft and wades into the water, where he tells her the story of "the very tragic life" of the bananafish: they gorge themselves on bananas, become too large to escape their feeding holes, and die. Sybil is unfazed by the story, and claims that she sees a bananafish
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Once alone, and returning to the hotel, Seymour becomes less affable. He starts a baseless argument with a woman in an elevator, accusing her of staring at his feet and calling her a "god-damned sneak". He returns to his hotel room, where his wife is taking a nap. He retrieves a pistol from his
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Meanwhile, at the resort's adjoining beach, a child named Sybil
Carpenter has been left unsupervised by her mother so that she may drink at the hotel bar. Sybil wanders on the beach and finds Seymour, lying in solitude a quarter-mile from the hotel. Sybil reproaches Seymour for allowing another
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At
Maxwell's urging, Salinger embarked upon a major reworking of the piece, adding the opening section with Muriel's character, and crafting the material to provide insights into Seymour's tragic demise. In frequent consultation with editor Gus Lobrano, Salinger revised the story numerous times
148:. Hemingway writes in such a way that the reader has to interpret and draw his or her own conclusions when characters are speaking. The vague description common to Hemingway's narrative dialogue appears in several of Salinger's stories and novels.
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The story met with immediate acclaim, and according to
Salinger biographer Paul Alexander, was "the story that would permanently change his standing in the literary community." Salinger's decision to collaborate with Maxwell and
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When "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" was first published, its initial reception was favorable. Readers accepted Salinger's novel tone, and "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" popularized Salinger in the literary community.
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After meeting with Maxwell, Salinger incorporated the portion of the story with Muriel talking to her mother on the phone. After the triumph of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Salinger allowed the
44:. The story is an enigmatic examination of a young married couple, Muriel and Seymour Glass, on vacation in Florida. It is the first of his stories to feature a member of the fictional
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staff in developing the story marked a major advance in his career and led to his entry into the echelon of elite writers at the journal. The story has been compared to
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of Greek myth and Seymour's story of the bananafish. The bananafish are "doomed by greed" and thus share the fate of Eliot's Sybil, "cursed by relentless existence."
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204:, Salinger was deeply affected by his experiences as a combat soldier in WWII, and these informed his writing. Kenneth Slawenski reports that Salinger, in his
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draws from Margaret Salinger's memories to elicit a connection between Salinger's progression from bleak to optimistic, and the spiritual writing style in
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259:." He suddenly got to his feet. He looked at the ocean. "Sybil," he said, "I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll see if we can catch a bananafish."
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Ooms, Julie (2016). ""Some Quick, However Slight, Therapy": Neighborliness and Rebuilding Community after War in J. D. Salinger's War Stories".
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because he believed the magazine's editors would publish more of his stories. After sending the initial draft, "The Bananafish", to the
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with six bananas in its mouth. Seymour affectionately kisses the arch of one of her feet, and returns her to shore, where she departs.
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Margaret Salinger, recalls her father's stories from World War II and makes a connection between Salinger and Seymour. Author
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in January 1947, titled "The Bananafish", its arresting dialogue and precise style were read with interest by fiction editor
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in which "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" appears, are not separate entities published together. Author Eberhard Alsen, in
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published the final version as "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" one year after Salinger first submitted the manuscript.
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Alsen, Eberhard (Spring 2002). "New Light on the Nervous Breakdowns of Salinger's Sergeant X and Seymour Glass".
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in the following exchange between Seymour and Sybil, regarding the little girl's young rival, Sharon Lipschutz:
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Cotter, James (Winter 1989). "A Source for Seymour's Suicide: Rilke's Voices and Salinger's Nine Stories".
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to have the first chance at printing all his subsequent writing by signing a contract with the magazine.
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and his staff, though the point of the story, in this original version, was considered incomprehensible.
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hanging in a jar, and when the boys asked her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she answered, 'I want to die.
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consistently dismissed further stories he submitted. Unfazed, Salinger continued to submit work to the
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for the little girl establishes an "unmistakable" correlation between Eliot's depiction of the
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255:"Ah, Sharon Lipschutz", said the young man. "How that name comes up.
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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
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554:"JD Salinger | Timeline of Major Events | American Masters | PBS"
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Salinger, J. D. (1981) . "A Perfect Day for a Bananafish".
510:(First Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.). New York.
214:"was not Seymour at all but... myself." Traumatized by the
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throughout 1947, renaming it "A Fine Day for Bananafish".
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When the 28-year-old Salinger submitted the manuscript to
26:, originally published in the January 31, 1948, issue of
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The stanza that contains the verse is from Section I of
295:"The Burial of the Dead" begins with an excerpt from
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Slawenski argues that Salinger's choice of the name
305:, which reads: "For once I saw with my own eyes the
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Salinger continued to face rejection afterward. The
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Despite some differing critical opinion, Salinger's
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502:Shields, David; Salerno, Shane (2013-09-03).
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1376:Works originally published in The New Yorker
409:"Salinger's Nine Stories: Fifty Years Later"
226:the world around him" and commits suicide.
38:, as well as in Salinger's 1953 collection
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538:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
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210:(1959), confesses that the young man in
140:Salinger was also greatly influenced by
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811:. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
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241:Salinger quotes a verse from the poem
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278:April is the cruelest month, breeding
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1186:"I Went to School with Adolf Hitler"
1176:"The Boy in the People Shooting Hat"
1041:Just Before the War with the Eskimos
35:55 Short Stories from the New Yorker
1191:The Last and Best of the Peter Pans
685:"The Flight From Fortress Salinger"
108:Background on publication and style
792:Blake, Bailey (January 31, 2011).
683:Rosenbaum, Ron (October 8, 2000).
146:writing style and narration method
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1206:"Monologue for a Watery Highball"
708:Menand, Louis (October 1, 2001).
612:Papers on Language and Literature
126:A Reader’s Guide to J.D Salinger,
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1083:Personal Notes of an Infantryman
589:. Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
585:A Reader's Guide to J.D Salinger
32:. It was anthologized in 1949's
1366:Short stories by J. D. Salinger
1218:The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls
1125:This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise
768:Slawenski, 2010, p. 161, p. 173
388:Slawenski, 2010, p. 159, p. 168
1266:Salinger v. Random House, Inc.
1090:Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes
1062:The Long Debut of Lois Taggett
985:For Esmé—with Love and Squalor
964:De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period
618:: 83–98 – via EBSCOhost.
290:Dull roots with spring rain.
20:"A Perfect Day for Bananafish"
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1048:Last Day of the Last Furlough
727:Malcolm, Janet (2001-06-21).
280:Lilacs out of the dead land,
16:Short story by J. D. Salinger
1391:Short stories set in Florida
1132:Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut
1097:Slight Rebellion off Madison
1076:A Perfect Day for Bananafish
733:The New York Review of Books
367:Slawenski, 2010, pp. 158–159
273:– "The Burial of the Dead":
158:Slight Rebellion off Madison
104:luggage and shoots himself.
1386:Short stories about suicide
1020:The Heart of a Broken Story
816:Slawenski, Kenneth (2010).
265:"A bananafish," he said...
200:Like the eldest son of the
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1069:Once a Week Won't Kill You
824:. New York: Random House.
729:"Justice to J.D. Salinger"
631:Christian Scholar's Review
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794:"For Salinger, With Love"
207:Seymour – An Introduction
581:Alsen, Eberhard (2002).
257:Mixing memory and desire
220:Nazi concentration camps
896:Short story collections
777:Slawenski, 2010, p. 172
487:Slawenski, 2010, p. 161
456:Slawenski, 2010, p. 160
407:Smith, Dominic (2003).
397:Slawenski, 2010, p. 168
379:Alexander, 1999, p. 124
358:Slawenski, 2010, p. 158
349:Slawenski, 2010, p. 159
160:" was published in the
152:Reception and criticism
1309:Coming Through the Rye
1181:The Children's Echelon
950:Both Parties Concerned
886:The Catcher in the Rye
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1381:Fiction about suicide
820:J.D. Salinger: A Life
465:Salinger, 1948, p. 14
1139:The Varioni Brothers
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164:and met with acclaim
22:is a short story by
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1034:The Inverted Forest
925:Three Early Stories
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413:The Antioch Review
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710:"Holden at Fifty"
297:Petronius Arbiter
286:Memory and desire
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1312:(2015 film)
1163:Unpublished
943:Blue Melody
658:CLA Journal
249:T. S. Eliot
182:Harold Ober
1360:Categories
746:2018-04-30
694:2018-04-27
643:1873850940
564:2018-04-27
288:, stirring
262:"A what?"
236:Bananafish
212:Bananafish
178:New Yorker
174:New Yorker
170:New Yorker
162:New Yorker
115:New Yorker
1027:I'm Crazy
741:0028-7504
637:: 46–63.
534:cite book
526:827262667
433:0003-5769
302:Satyricon
1345:Category
1292:(2013) (
1289:Salinger
670:44325109
639:ProQuest
506:Salinger
247:by poet
218:and the
196:Analysis
156:Though "
1242:Related
1223:"Paula"
785:Sources
441:4614550
81:May Day
1328:(2020)
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1284:(1995)
1276:(1949)
978:Elaine
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282:mixing
1251:(son)
1118:Teddy
878:Novel
799:Slate
666:JSTOR
437:JSTOR
328:Notes
318:Sybil
1281:Pari
826:ISBN
737:ISSN
591:ISBN
540:link
522:OCLC
512:ISBN
429:ISSN
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