1/31/2024 0 Comments A perfect day for bananafish![]() Muriel dismisses her remarks as hyperbole, regarding her husband's idiosyncrasies as benign and manageable. Muriel's mother is concerned by reports of her son-in-law's increasingly bizarre and anti-social actions, and warns her daughter that he may "lose control of himself". Muriel Glass, a wealthy and self-absorbed woman, phones her mother from her suite to discuss Muriel's 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 disorder. The story is set at a large seaside resort in Florida. Scott Fitzgerald's " May Day." Plot summary 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 The New Yorker 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 New Yorker published the final version as "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" one year after Salinger first submitted the manuscript. In frequent consultation with editor Gus Lobrano, Salinger revised the story numerous times throughout 1947, renaming it "A Fine Day for Bananafish". Īt 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. When the 28-year-old Salinger submitted the manuscript to The New Yorker in January 1947, titled "The Bananafish", its arresting dialogue and precise style were read with interest by fiction editor William Maxwell and his staff, though the point of the story, in this original version, was considered incomprehensible. It is the first of his stories to feature a member of the fictional Glass family. The story is an enigmatic examination of a young married couple, Muriel and Seymour Glass, on vacation in Florida. It was anthologized in 1949's 55 Short Stories from the New Yorker, as well as in Salinger's 1953 collection Nine Stories. Salinger, originally published in the January 31, 1948, issue of The New Yorker. ![]() This world – the materialistic world of his wife – is very different than the pure, natural world he just occupied with Sybil."A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is a short story by J. It's striking that when Seymour enters the hotel room, he is immediately hit with the smell of "new calfskin luggage and nail-lacquer remover" (2.108). ![]() It's also appropriate that Sybil and Seymour are outside, in the purity of the natural elements. It's appropriate that Muriel is indoors she's materialistic and certainly less aware of the world (at least spiritually) than Seymour. The second half takes place outside, in the sun and in the ocean, where a pale Seymour plays with young Sybil. The first half takes place in a hotel room indoors, where a sun-burnt Muriel talks on the phone to her mother. It's interesting to consider the sort of dual setting we have in this story. In later Glass family works, narrator Buddy Glass confirms that his brother Seymour committed suicide in 1948, allowing us to deduce that Seymour was 30 or 31 at the time. We know from Seymour's nickname for Muriel that the year is 1948.
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