A Perfect Day for Bananafish

“A Perfect Day for Bananafish” is a short story by iconic American author J. D. Salinger. First published in The New Yorker in 1948 and later published in the collection Nine Stories (1953), it is considered one of Salinger’s breakthrough works, establishing the unique voice, flair for character, energetic dialogue, and inventive style that would become his trademarks. The story centers on a young New York City couple, Seymour and Muriel Glass, and the bizarre, life-changing experiences they have during their visit to a Florida resort. Through Seymour, Salinger explores themes of lost innocence, the psychological effects of war, and the inability to leave trauma behind. Like The Catcher in the Rye (1951), the story is widely studied.

“A Perfect Day for Bananafish” was the first of Salinger’s works to feature the Glass family, who would go on to figure prominently in some of his later fiction. Seymour is a character in several Salinger novels and stories, including Franny and Zooey (1961).

This study guide refers to the 1991 edition of Nine Stories published by Little, Brown and Company. The short story collection opens with an epigraph attributed to a famous Zen Koan: “We know the sound of two hands clapping. But what is the sound of one hand clapping?” This relates to the idea that one hand cannot clap, and so the sound of one hand clapping is nothingness, or silence. Silence is a metaphor for death, which is at the heart of this short story.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of suicide and the effects of PTSD.

The third-person omniscient narrative is set at a beachside Florida hotel in 1948. The story consists of five scenes, three inside the hotel and two on the beach. Seymour Glass is staying at the resort with his wife, Muriel.

In the hotel room, Muriel leisurely paints her fingernails as the phone repeatedly rings. When Muriel finally answers, her mother is frantic for not being able to reach Muriel sooner. Their conversation reveals that Muriel’s husband has been struggling since his return as a soldier from WWII: “In the first place, he said it was a perfect crime the Army released him from the hospital […] He very definitely told your father that there’s a chance […] that Seymour may completely lose control of himself” (4). Their topic of conversation abruptly switches to the season’s fashions, the fit of Muriel’s clothes, and Muriel’s criticisms of the resort’s guests. Then, they covertly discuss how Seymour crashed Muriel’s father’s car into a tree, and Muriel’s mother chastises Muriel for letting Seymour drive to the resort.

Muriel’s mother is extremely concerned about Muriel being alone with Seymour. She abhors how Seymour regards Muriel—as “Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948” (6)—and is worried that Seymour may be dangerous. Muriel brushes these concerns aside: “Mother, I’m not afraid of Seymour” (7). She attempts to end the conversation, explaining that Seymour may return from the beach momentarily. Muriel’s mother is taken aback that Seymour is at the beach unchaperoned. Muriel assures her that Seymour harmlessly lies on the beach in his bathrobe, which he refuses to take off. The conversation ends with Muriel promising to ring her parents if Seymour says or does anything “funny.”

In the brief second scene, four-year-old Sybil Carpenter is outside on the beach. Sybil’s mother applies suntan lotion on the girl’s back while gossiping with a friend, Mrs. Hubbel. Sybil asks her mother repeatedly about Seymour but breaks his name down into distinct pieces: “Did you see more glass?” (7). When the lotion is fully applied, Mrs. Carpenter sends Sybil off to play on the beach alone while she and Mrs. Hubbel go inside to get a martini.

In the third scene, Sybil walks for a quarter of a mile before she sees Seymour lying on the beach. She runs over to speak with him, and Seymour instinctively clutches his terrycloth robe when Sybil approaches. The girl asks if he’s going to go swimming, all the while referring to him as “see more glass” (7). Seymour playfully tells Sybil he was waiting for her before going swimming.

Seymour holds Sybil’s ankle as they chat, and it’s clear that they’ve been friendly for the two days Seymour has been at the hotel. Sybil is upset that Seymour let another young girl, Sharon Lipschutz, sit beside him on the piano bench when he was playing in the evening. Sybil tells Seymour that he should have pushed her off, but Seymour says he just pretended that Sharon was Sybil. This doesn’t fully appease Sybil.

The two of them take Seymour’s float and head out to the water together. Seymour removes his robe, meticulously folds it, and carefully sets it on a small towel. He mentions to Sybil that they should try to catch a bananafish, though Sybil has never heard of them. As they walk down to the water, they continue to talk about lighthearted things, such as where Sybil lives, the plot of Little Black Sambo, and whether Seymour enjoys wax and olives. Seymour pleasantly entertains the young girl’s conversation: “Olives and wax. I never go anyplace without ’em” (11). Sybil brings the conversation back to Sharon Lipschutz and whether Seymour likes her. Seymour says he does: “What I particularly like about her is that she never does anything mean to little dogs in the lobby of the hotel” (11). He adds that unlike some little girls, Sharon doesn’t like to tease and poke dogs. This causes Sybil to fall silent until they reach the water.

They wade out until Seymour has to lift Sybil onto the float. He tells her to keep an eye out for bananafish: “This is a perfect day for bananafish” (11). He explains to Sybil that bananafish have a “tragic life.” They swim into a hole and gorge on bananas, but then they become too large to get back out. Because of this, they develop “banana fever” and die. Sybil is splashed by a wave and mentions seeing a bananafish with six bananas in its mouth. Seymour tenderly kisses the arch of Sybil’s foot, and she recoils. Seymour decides that they should go back to shore. Sybil offers a quick goodbye and runs back to the hotel.

In the brief fourth scene, Seymour wraps himself tightly in his robe once more and heads inside. He has a confrontation in the hotel elevator with a woman whom he accuses of looking at his feet. She denies it, saying she was looking at the floor. Seymour tells her she shouldn’t lie about wanting to look at his feet: “But don’t be a God-damned sneak about it” (12). The woman exits the elevator, and Seymour complains a bit more about her attention to his feet.

In the fifth scene, Seymour reaches room 507, where he finds his wife sleeping on one of the twin beds. He goes to his luggage and pulls out a pistol. Then he quietly sits down on the other bed, looks at his wife, and shoots himself in the right temple.