Re: Hey guys


Subject: Re: Hey guys
ErsatzAzalea@aol.com
Date: Fri Apr 26 2002 - 01:07:39 EDT


In a message dated 4/26/2002 12:39:34 AM Eastern Standard Time,
kap3p@guppy.mail.virginia.edu writes:

> I loved A Perfect Day
> for Bananafish, but didn't really understand what Salinger
> was trying to say with it.

Once you read "Franny And Zooey" and "Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenters"
and "Seymour", you'll understand more. Seymour is a recurring character in
Salinger's work. In those two books he writes under the pseudonym, Buddy
Glass, Seymour's younger brother (if you remember the little girl calling
Seymour "See More Glass"... I love that, hehe). Anyway, when I first read
"Bananafish", I thought the fish metaphor was something about the war...
because Muriel mentioned his being a soldier when she was talking to her
mother. Going into the cave and taking in too much, for Seymour I guess
seeing too much violence and pain, and being unable to remove himself from
that mentally... that was the only interpretation I could come up with.
Seymour reminded me a bit of another Holden, the way he was so touched by the
little girl's innocence. It seemed heartbreaking when he kissed her foot
when they were in the ocean. You could tell her innocence was half something
he needed and half something that killed him even more, because he could see
her being corrupted later on as she grew older. I think that had something
to do with Muriel, I think he resented Muriel in a way. What did he call
her? "Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948", haha. In "Raise High The Roofbeam" you
find that Seymour really loved Muriel, but I think when things started
getting to him and he couldn't handle it, he resented her simplicity. When
she was on the phone with her mother she seemed sort of vapid. Seymour
needed someone to understand him, and from what I could tell he never had
that in his whole life... Muriel certainly couldn't. I'm rambling... anyway,
just read the other books and it might clarify a few things.

~Melanie

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