RE: Seymour's death

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> And this begs the question: could the story have ended some other way?
> Could the last paragraph been substituted by, for instance, Seymour
killing
> Muriel instead? Or by Seymour starting to cut his fingernails? Or by
> Seymour leaving the hotel and Muriel For Always? If not, why not? Is this
a
> valid question?

The question suggests Seymour's suicide is just an interesting plot twist
tacked on to the end of the story. Looking at Salinger's work as a whole,
particularly at Seymour's (alive or dead) prominent role, I think we have to
assume that Seymour's suicide was the very premise of Bananafish. It was the
reason for everything in the story leading up to it. 

Perhaps a more appropriate question is, could the story have reached it's
destination by some other route?

-Sean

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