good stuff. i really did enjoy that old post, it's probably the best critique aviable for free =) cya~ randy > The girl on the beach was just a girl he met, the girl in the room was Murial > his wife, as a stand alone story, its god, but it is really the cornerstone > of all the other Glass stories. As to why he killed himself and the > bananafish analogy, the following message posted several months ago is the > best answer I've evre seen > > <<<I think some of you may be looking too hard for the meaning of Seymour, or > at > least looking in the wrong place. > > Salinger has told the same story at least three times. Catcher, Bananafish > and the actual story Seymour tells about the fish are really the same story. > There might be more, Like Esme, but I haven't thought about it a lot. > > The point: Most people are able to see that the world isn't really to be > dealt with. They are either not able to see that there is so much bad, bad > stuff (phony, cruel, illogical ..etc.) out there, or they can see it but they > realize that if you want to be happy and comfortable you better find a way to > ignore it and work around it. But, there are always some people, or fish, who > can't manage that. They see-more. They have to take it all in, or swallow so > many banana's, that they can't let it go. People like that are in for a fall. > You can't live that way. Holden went crazy. The Fish and Seymour died. And > Salinger ended up a hermit. It's not an option, and you shouldn't look at > Seymour's death as a suicide. It's not like Seymour could have chose to > see-less. Holden's teacher tried to warn Holden of "the fall, Seymour tried > to warn the little girl at the beach, and I suppose Salinger was trying to > warn us too with Bananafish. > > I don't think you're supposed to look at Muriel as a antagonist. She was just > there to provide contrast between people like Seymour and everyone else.>>> > > >