Perfect Day for Bananafish

Happiness in our life stems from our high expectations on loved ones. When these hopes, contributing to trust, lack fulfillment, this leads to betrayal. In a Perfect Day for Bananafish, Seymour Glass's encounter with war breeds the inability for him to conform with society. In a forlorn state of mind, he seeks to communicate with Muriel his wife. However, she undergoes a self indulging life, failing to understand him, thus causing Seymour to experience a profound sense of loss. Moreover, Salinger characterizes Muriel as a mundane and materialistic wife to demonstrate how people fail to recognize those who are disconnected from society.

Seymour s mundane perception of Muriel leads to dissatisfaction because it is distinct from his expectations of an ideal partner. He expresses this discontent of his wife in his reply to Sybil, when he says, "The lady?...That's hard to say Sybil...she may be in a thousand places. At the hair dressers, having her handed milk, or making dolls for poor children...". Moreover, suggesting that she may be " making dolls for poor children" in a sarcastic tone conveys his open disdain for his wife's shallow nature. Furthermore, he realizes that she values spending time with needless activities, instead of his severe mental health, and this demonstrates his lack of concern over her whereabouts. Nevertheless, he bitterly acknowledges that Muriel is firmly entrenched in the superficial world, in which he's merely an outsider experiencing desolation. Swenson writes in her analysis, "Seymour may weigh the nature of humanity through the time he spends with Sybil, all the while grasping for some kind of hope or even deliverance for what he has endured..." (Slawenski 161). Her assertion is a vivid portrayal of he's inclined to spend time with children, rather than adults. This is because he is able to reciprocate with Sybil, a child who is essentially a stranger, although his own wife is an exception. This, however, can lead one to deduce that Seymour has a preconception of adults, and hence avoids Muriel groundless. Still, it is her fault for disregarding his PTSD and fabricating the perception that all adults are egocentric. Consequently, this caused him to lose faith in humanity, and seek children as consolation to bear society's prejudice.

Seymour s struggle to conform with society persisted even after his return from war, because Muriel failed to understand him. As a result, he experienced a profound sense of loss that escalated the inability to cope with his emotions. The extent of his physiological distress is revealed at the end of the story when he accuses a women of looking at his feet saying " If you want to look at my feet, say so, but don't be god damned sneak about it". This sudden outburst reveals his final attempt to communicate with society. However, he's unable to discern that his behaviour appears unusual in

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