Materialism and Bananafish

In the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, the first of nine in the collection Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, Muriel is talking to her mother over the phone from her beach resort about how Muriel’s husband, Seymour, who has recently returned from war, may be dealing with severe mental issues.  Out on the beach, Seymour is tell a young girl named Sybil the story of Bananafish, which are normal looking fish who swim into holes filled with bananas and selfishly eat all of the bananas until they become to fat to escape the banana holes and they die.  After Sybil runs back to the hotel, Seymour returns to his room, looks at Muriel sleeping on one of the two beds, draws a pistol from his luggage and shoots himself in the right temple.

Salinger shows his distaste for main theme of materialism in Muriel.  Whenever we see Muriel in the story, she enjoying many luxuries such as her white silk dress and she is always painting her nails and reading a women’s magazine while Seymour is out at the beach.  She cares more about her appearance then about her husband’s obvious mental issues.  One of the reasons I think that Seymour shot himself was because Muriel wasn’t giving him the attention he needed and making sure that he is getting good therapy at the resort to help cope with his return from the war.

Being in middle school, at some point or another everyone deals with theme of trying to fit in and making sure everyone likes you.  Once we enter this age we become more conscious of how we are dressing, much more so then when we were younger.  This theme of the story shows how this constant self-consciousness of how other people think of you can take away from stuff that is much more important, such as what other people are feeling or thinking and the relationships with your friends.