A Perfect Day for a Salinger Persona

There are people in every walk of life that are different from those around them. This may be because they are a child with a large imagination and an even bigger vocabulary, or an adult who is damaged and never grew up; in literature they are known as a Salinger Persona. In every story told by J.D. Salinger in his book, Nine Stories, there is always one or more characters who are seen as a personification of Salinger himself and his ideals. Usually these characters are put into the category of a Salinger child or a Salinger adult, and both categories have defining features that apply. One of the tales told in Nine Stories is A Perfect Day for Banana-fish. This story contains both a Salinger adult and a Salinger child as seen through Seymour Glass and Sybil.

In A Perfect Day for Banana-fish, Salinger tells the story of a young man named Seymour Glass and his interactions with a little girl, Sybil. It is clear that Seymour Glass and Sybil are Salinger’s adult and child personas respectively. Sybil represents a Salinger child because she is highly imaginative and intelligent. Even at a young age she sees the world with more clarity than some adults, despite her innocence, and is overly sensitive. Seymour Glass is a Salinger adult because he damaged from the War he fought in, and yet he still has a good imagination and is good at talking to children.

Sybil showcases her inner Salinger child when she confronts Seymour about Sharon Lipchitz – “Sharon Lipchitz said you let her sit on the piano seat with you… next time, push her off” (Salinger 18-19). Most children would not confront an adult in such a direct manner but, because Sybil is capable of seeing the world as it truly is, she’s overly sensitive and knows that in order to get what she wants she has to be able to be confrontational. Sybil is also very intelligent when it comes to vocabulary. She creates a play-on-words for Seymour’s name, “See more glass… did you see more glass?” (Salinger 14). Her imagination is a driving force for both her characterization but also in furthering the plot. This can be seen when she searches for Banana-fish with Seymour in the ocean. “I just saw one… a Banana-fish…” she reports to Seymour, and when asked how many bananas the fish had in its mouth she responds, “Six” (Salinger 24).

When it comes to Seymour Glass it is clear that something is off in his head; which inevitably makes him a Salinger persona. He says weird things and sees things that aren’t real – mostly likely because of the Post Traumatic Stress and depression that come from seeing the horrors of war. At first it is basic things, like his confusion of Sybil’s yellow bathing suit for a blue bathing suit, but then while having a conversation with Sybil about whether or not he likes olives he responds with “Olives – yes. Olives and wax. I never go anyplace without ‘em” (Salinger 21).

This strange behavior continues on until he convinces Sybil to help him hunt in the ocean for Banana-fish, which is an imaginary fish he has created that lives in the ocean and only eats bananas. While searching for the Banana-fish, another trait of a Salinger persona is seen through his skills at speaking to a child as if they are on a level equal to an adult. He answers all of Sybil’s questions no matter what and makes up a convoluted story about what happens to Banana-fish when they eat too many bananas, “They get banana fever. It’s a terrible disease” (Salinger 23). After they say goodbye Seymour reveals a final Salinger trait while heading back to his hotel room – a combination of paranoia and the inability to relate to other adults. When Seymour enters the elevator to ride up to his room, he becomes paranoid that the woman in the elevator is staring at his feet. Despite the fact that this woman tells him that she was not looking at his feet, he remains convinced and responds very harshly towards her: “If you wanna look at my feet, say so… but don’t be a God-damned sneak about it” (Salinger 25). It is not until Seymour enters his hotel room, puts a gun to his head, and kills himself that we see the true severity of the damage done to his innocence by the war.

This is Salinger’s way of showing that war is a terrible thing that can destroy one’s innocent view on the world – the same way that fighting in World War II destroyed Salinger’s innocence. Yet, just because one’s innocence is damaged, they do not have to lose all sense of imagination; imagination can in fact help someone cope with what they have seen. In addition, the imagination of a child can influence one’s own imagination and children sometimes see the world more clearly than even adults do.

Works Cited

Salinger, J.D. “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”. Nine Stories, Back Bay Books, 2001, pp.3-26.