![]() The third story, Just Before the War with the Eskimos, is probably the most symbolic and unexplainable one within the whole collection. It is really deeply touching to read the story of lives that could have been different but have turned into what these two women represent at the moment they are depicted and makes one think about the sense of life and wisdom of actions seriously. They discuss what they had in life, what chances it gave them in the past and how they lost all that without realizing the mistakes then and feeling bitter regret at the present moment. Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut is another story about unsuccessful lives and disappointment two drunken women express in their sad talk in the afternoon (Salinger). The ending is very unexpected and touching, it leaves much food for thought, but since the story of Seymour was not told in more detail it is hard for the reader to generally understand the reasons for suicide or to sympathise him (Salinger). Further on the swim of Seymour with the girl called Sybil is depicted, but it is again too senseless and has too many deviations that the reader unwillingly thinks that both interlocutors simply do not hear each other. Too much attention is paid to their senseless talk about clothes and appearance to have time to focus on the deep psychological problems Seymour has. It tells about the last day of life of Seymour Glass who had a rest at the beach while his wife was chatting with her mother about trifles, sometimes including phrases about the heavy illness of her husband (Salinger). You might also want to consider the woman in the elevator with zinc salve on her nose, or the fact that Sybil is being slathered with sun-tan oil when we first meet her.The first story of the collection, A Perfect Day for Bananafish, sounds more as a beginning of something greater but not a finished work. ![]() If this is the case, Seymour has maintained his spiritual purity or his youthful innocence, while Muriel has not. Or, it could be equivalent to being jaded by experiences in the world. Getting too much sun is sort of equivalent to getting burned by material pursuits. Muriel, on the other hand, is inside because she's sun-burned so badly. Notice that Seymour is very pale and doesn't want to get any sun on the beach. So he sees her in the color blue, rather than the yellow she actually wears. Seymour sees Sybil's spiritual mechanism, her internal qualities of purity and innocence. "In making sure of the essential, he forgets the homely details intent on the inward qualities, he loses sight of the external." That's seems to be what's going on here with Seymour. The man has learned to look at the horse's "spiritual mechanism," he says. The Duke is peeved that this guy can't even tell the color and sex of a horse, but Po Lo is ecstatic. When the horse arrives, however, it is a black stallion. The man does, and when the emperor asks about its color and sex, the man tells him it is a brown mare. Po Lo does, and the Duke employs this man to pick out a horse for him. The Duke asked Po Lo to send him a man who could pick out a superior horse from a group of animals. The story he read was a Taoist tale about Duke Mu of China and an enlightened man named Po Lo. When their sister Franny was a ten months old, Seymour read her a story to stop her from fussing one night. Actually, there's an interesting aside in Salinger's short story "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters" that Buddy Glass tells about his brother Seymour. She is pure and innocent, so he associates her with the color blue. It also makes sense that he thinks Sybil is wearing a blue bathing suit. If we think of blue as associated with purity or innocence, then it makes sense that Seymour is wearing blue trunks. If there's one thing I like, it's a blue bathing suit" (2.20). Yet Seymour says to her, "That's a fine bathing suit you have on. Notice that Seymour's swim trunks are blue, while Sybil wears a yellow bathing suit. ![]() We discuss this central theme in "What's Up with the Title?" See you there. We're going to go ahead and discuss the possible meanings of these different symbols, but keep in mind that it might all be for naught. To pick it apart analytically is to misinterpret Salinger's intentions. The other camp bases its interpretation largely on the epigraph, which tells us not to approach this story with logic. It matters that Sybil likes to eat wax, not jellybeans or pencils. It matters that Seymour's swim trunks are blue. From this viewpoint, it matters that Seymour's room is 507, rather than 213. Before we talk about any of these symbols, you should know that there are two camps when it comes to interpreting "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." One camp is all about the deep hidden meaning, thinking that every line, perhaps even every word has some carefully chosen significance.
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