Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Free Discussion on Banana Fish
What did you think of "A Perfect Day for Banana Fish"? Post your thoughts, or post a question. Post anything. This is an informal discussion on the story; the only requirement is that you must respond to the person who posts before you. I'd like to see a little more dialogue on the board. I'll chime in too.
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i thought the story had a nice flow to it; especially the way Salinger transitioned from the phone conversation that Muriel was having with her mother to the scene on the beach. that flowing transition is the opposite of what the phone conversation was. the mother and daughter kept interrupting each other, whether it be when the mom continuously asked her daughter if she was ok, or when she asked questions about the doctor report. the phone conversation is probably there to build up the character and make him look crazy. like when the mom gave hints about stories of what he did with the chair or the granny story. slanager put this to portray a craziness in seymour and then eventually lead up to his suicide. what i would like to know is, is seymour a petafile?
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that Salinger was trying to portray Seymour as a pedophile. He was paralleling Seymour to the little girl. Her thoughts and enjoyments in life are still very simple. Her mind not yet tainted by society. Seymour just came back from the war and probably saw some horrendous things. He returns to a society that cares only about petty issues. The little girl represents a pureness in society that Seymour longs for after returning.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think Salinger uses the phallic image of the "banana fish"? This clearly steers the reader toward a perverse interpretation. Why would Salinger use this image but then leave the Seymour-Sybil encounter ambiguous?
ReplyDeleteI thought the story was really hard to understand at first. It was until the third time around that i read the story that i had a better understanding of what the author wanted us to learn from the story. Salinger uses Sybil because he wanted the reader to see that Sybil was not tainted yet. She still had her innocence and she did not conform to society. When Seymour comes back from the war, i could tell that he saw life differently because everyday his life was being threatened and he had to fight to keep alive. Then he comes back to a society that focuses on other people's lives and opinions to dictate their own lives. It probably made him angry that people could be so self-centered. I think Salinger uses the "banana fish" image to show that something so simple could keep a child's imagination open and free-minded. I felt like if he would have used the "banana fish" conversation with an adult instead of a child, the adult and the reader would have thought that Seymour is crazy.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even associate the "banana fish" with phallic imagery! Maybe this is a hidden imagery Salinger uses to test the mind of the reader! I understood the banana fish as being creatures, that live life from one day to the next. They can only consume so much before there time ends. Meaning they appreciate life, but once they're overwhelmed, they must find an exit.
ReplyDeleteIt’s true that the story was very hard to understand at first. But when the author mentioned the banana fish, then i knew that Salinger was kind of mentally ill. The use of the banana fish was just a medium to give the reader an image of what is going on in Salinger’s mind. i also think that the narrator felt that he was like a fish in a huge and danger ocean which is society. That's the reason why he decide to kill himself. This remainds me of a saying that i have had heard so many times, "Big fish eat small fish".
ReplyDeleteI felt the structure of the story was a reflection of Seymour's conscious. We, the readers, are thrown in the middle of a scene and are left wondering what Murial and her mother are discussing. We can not truly grasp the heart of the conversation and are left slightly confused. Salinger introduces Sybil and Seymour together in order to truly understand Seymour. Oddly enough this scene to me has the most clarity. Seymour seems to have an easy time interacting with Sybil, which says that Seymour has a child like mentality and can only interact normally on that level. Once Sybil leaves Seymour it also seems that part of Seymour leaves with her. After Seymour is thrown back into a situation where he interacts with an adult, it seems to overwhelm probably what lead him to his death.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Dana. How did you analze the story so throughly?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Flora that Seymour was having a difficult time after he came back from war. I think part of his trouble was that no one around him could understand what he was going through and he couldnt quiet move on with life once he got back from the war. The wife seemed as though she did care because she kept telling her mother that she wasnt afraid of him and she wasnt leaving him. Yet at the same time i think she was blind to things around her because she was so materialistic. She would never be able to understand her husband because it was like they were from two different worlds. I agree with everyone else that Sybil represented purity and innocence to Seymour. I think Sybil brought Seymour back to a place of simplicity and he enjoyed that. However, the relationship he was forming with her was strange because of some comments he made which made him seem as a petafile. I think one of the reasons he killed himself is because he missed that simplicity that little kids can bring back to him. He didnt want to be a petafile but he could no longer connect with adults.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Sonia on this one, Seymour had lost his mind after the war. Any sane person could see that he wasn't in the proper state of mind. He wanted to hangout with children to the point of being their best friend and that right there is already disturbing. I wish there really were bananafish but this man had just plain lost his mind. The fact that Sybil can ignore such as a situation to think that everything is ok was very stupid on her part, she could have been killed herself as far as anything. Most people that come back from a war are never the same, thats why it's the families job to help them feel more at home and comfortable, so they wouldn't go through the experiences that Seymour was going through while on vacation.
ReplyDeletesorry i meant Murial, got mixed up with the characters***
ReplyDeleteI agree with Roman. People do completely lose their minds after war. Its a completely different and disturbing atmosphere during war. It is no surprise that many people go insane. Seymour was an unfortunate person who had to go through this too. Muriel should understand this condition and help him feel better although she doesnt. She seems very selfish. Maybe thats why Seymour becomes interested in children even though that is also very disturbing to hear.
ReplyDeleteCrystal A.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Zainab when it comes to people losing their minds after the war. I also think that Seymour definitely fits the description of one of those people. However, it is still unclear to me whether or not Seymour was really interested in children in a pedophile kind of way. His mind seems to be unstable because the whole conversation he is having with Sybil is weird. It seems like he is talking to her as if he were a child himself. But this still doesn’t make their interaction okay because Seymour is a grown man and her parents should have been wondering who is this strange man with my child. The whole situation was weird. I think that Seymour needs to be taken to a mental hospital to make sure all his screws in his head are still intact.