Author Eberhard Alsen, in A Reader’s Guide to J.D Salinger, observes that the stories evolve chronologically. ĭespite some differing critical opinion, Salinger's Nine Stories, in which "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" appears, are not separate entities published together. After the triumph of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Salinger allowed the New Yorker to have the first chance at printing all of his subsequent writing by signing a contract with the magazine. After the author’s encounter with Maxwell, the portion of the story with Muriel speaking to her mother on the phone was incorporated. Maxwell argued that there was no clear explanation that justified Seymour killing himself. Originally, the story consisted merely of Seymour’s incident on the beach with Sybil Carpenter, and the consequent suicide. He retrieves a pistol from his luggage and shoots himself.īackground on publication and style īefore publication of the story, Salinger had reworked the details in a meeting with William Maxwell. He returns to his hotel room, where his wife is taking a nap. 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". Once alone, and returning to the hotel, Seymour becomes less affable. Seymour affectionately kisses the arch of one of her feet, and returns her to shore, where she departs.
Sybil is unfazed by the story, and claims that she sees a bananafish with six bananas in its mouth. 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. Seymour responds that he observed Sybil abusing a hotel patron's dog, and the girl falls silent. Seymour attempts to placate Sybil by suggesting they "catch a Bananafish", but Sybil insists that Seymour choose between her and Sharon Lipschutz. Sybil reproaches Seymour for allowing another little girl, Sharon Lipschutz, to sit with him the previous night as he played the lounge piano for the hotel's guests. Sybil wanders on the beach and finds Seymour, lying in solitude a quarter-mile from the hotel. 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. Neither of the women express concern that Seymour's irrational behavior may indicate that he is suffering emotionally. 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 an upscale seaside resort in Florida.
The effort was met with immediate acclaim, and according to Salinger biographer Paul Alexander, it 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 that echelon of elite writers at the journal. The New Yorker published the final version as "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" one year after Salinger had first submitted the manuscript. Salinger, in frequent consultation with editor Gus Lobrano, 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 twenty-eight-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 deemed 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, while 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. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is a short story by J.
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