Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Perfect Day for Bananafish, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sanity and Social Norms
Wealth and Materialism
Communication and Isolation
Innocence and Violence
Summary
Analysis
A convention of New York advertising men is tying up the long-distance phone lines at Muriel’s hotel. Because of this, Muriel busies herself for two and a half hours as she waits for her call to go through. She spends the time grooming herself, doing things like painting her nails and moving a button on her Saks blouse. When the operator finally calls her room to connect her call, Muriel lazily walks to the phone while putting the finishing touches on her manicure. When she eventually picks up the phone, she’s careful not to smudge the wet polish on her silk dressing gown.
Muriel’s preoccupation with grooming herself and tending to the state of her clothes introduces the theme of wealth and materialism—the mention of her blouse from Saks (an upscale department store) and her silk dressing gown suggests that Muriel surrounds herself with nice things. That she prioritizes finishing her manicure over picking up the phone also suggests that she values materialism and appearances over things like connecting with others and valuing their time. On this note, the fact that she’s unhurried in picking up the phone also begins to gesture at the theme of failed communication that runs throughout the story.
Themes
Once the operator connects Muriel’s call to New York, Muriel’s mother’s panicked voice rings out through the receiver, demanding to know if Muriel is okay; Muriel says she’s fine but it’s brutally hot in Florida. Cutting her off, Muriel’s mother frantically asks her daughter why she hasn’t called, but Muriel calmly answers she tried twice the day before and the call didn’t go through. Muriel’s mother asks who drove and is horrified to find that “he” did. Muriel quickly interjects, assuring her mother that he drove competently—it was at a reasonable speed and he didn’t hit any trees. In fact, he forced himself to not even look at the trees.
When Muriel’s mother asks her daughter if she’s alright, she clearly means whether Muriel is safe—her panicked tone suggests that she thought Muriel had gone missing and was in danger. Muriel misinterprets the question, perhaps willfully, and answers about the weather being uncomfortably warm. Even though Muriel is technically answering her mother’s question, the two aren’t effectively communicating, which is a trend that will mark their entire phone conversation. Meanwhile, Muriel’s mother’s anxiety about the man driving suggests that he was in a car crash in the recent past. But strangely, Muriel’s assurance that he didn’t even look at the trees this time suggests that his last accident was somewhat on purpose, as if he had seen trees and couldn’t resist hitting them. This detail begins painting the man as violent or potentially unhinged, while Muriel’s flippant attitude about him and the accident is another example of her failing to truly engage in conversation.
Themes
While they’re on the subject, Muriel asks if her father got his car fixed yet after her husband, Seymour, crashed it into a tree. Cutting her daughter off once more, Muriel’s mother asks Muriel if Seymour is still calling her the same horrible nickname. With a laugh, Muriel says he has a new one for her—he now calls her “Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948.” Muriel’s mother is unamused, but Muriel quickly changes the subject, asking her mother if she’s seen the book of German poems that Seymour sent her while he was in Germany.
Here, the man that Muriel and her mother have been talking about is revealed to be Muriel’s husband, Seymour Glass, and Seymour’s nickname for his wife reveals that the story is set in 1948. In this passage, Muriel’s mother is once again concerned about Seymour’s behavior and her daughter’s well-being, while Muriel laughs off her concerns, unwilling or unable to have a conversation about them. Likewise, in calling Muriel “Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948,” Seymour seems to be criticizing Muriel’s character, suggesting that she doesn’t have a spiritual sensibility or emotional depth to her—that she’s vagrant or beggar spiritually, meaning that spirituality is something she sorely lacks. True to form, though, Muriel is flippant and laughs about the nickname, again unwilling to discuss it more deeply. On another note, the fact that Seymour sent Muriel poems from Germany—coupled with the detail that the story is set in 1948—suggests that Seymour has recently returned from fighting in World War II.
Themes
Muriel explains that Seymour brought up the poems on the drive and asked if she read them. Muriel’s mother scoffs at this, since the poems were in German, and Muriel says that according to Seymour, the poems were written by “the only great poet of the century,” so she should have tried to find a translation or just learned German. After making sure her daughter is listening, Muriel’s mother explains that the girl’s father recently spoke with Dr. Sivetski about Seymour’s behavior. According to the doctor, it was wrong of the Army to release Seymour from the hospital, and it’s likely that Seymour will suffer from a mental breakdown any day now—“My word of honor,” Muriel’s mother declares.
The fact that Seymour sent Muriel the poems and actually expected her to read them—and the fact that Muriel not only failed to read them but also doesn’t even know where she put them—suggests that husband and wife are on completely different planes when it comes to their sensitivity to spiritual things like poetry and philosophy. Meanwhile, Muriel’s mother’s use of the phrase “My word of honor,” coupled with her confirming whether Muriel is listening, again gestures to the theme of communication, as she is doing everything she can to get Muriel’s attention. The mention of Muriel’s father’s conversation with Dr. Sivetski confirms that Seymour indeed fought in World War II and that he is suffering psychologically. At the time, such a condition was called “shell shock” and came to be known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, after the Vietnam War.
Themes
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Muriel says that there’s a psychiatrist staying at her hotel, though she struggles to remember his name. Muriel’s mother implores her to come home, but Muriel refuses to cut short the first vacation she’s had in years—plus, she’s too sunburned to move. Shifting the conversation back to the psychiatrist, Muriel’s mother asks her daughter if she talked to him at all and if Seymour was present for it. Muriel says Seymour was off playing piano in another room, as he’s done the last two nights. As for the psychiatrist, he said “nothing much”; he asked if her piano-playing husband was “sick or something.” Muriel’s mother interjects, asking why the man asked such a thing, and Muriel causally says that it’s probably because Seymour is so pale.
Once again, Muriel makes light of her mother’s real—and reasonable—concerns for her daughter’s well-being and her son-in-law’s mental state. By focusing on her sunburn and how much she wants to enjoy her vacation, Muriel avoids actually addressing her mother’s fears. Muriel also sends the message that she is far more interested in material things, like ritzy vacations or the appearance of her skin, than her husband’s health. The detail about Seymour playing piano alone points to his spiritual sensibility (besides poetry, he also appreciates music) and is the first indication that he isolates himself from others. The psychiatrist seems to see these two things—Seymour’s piano playing and his willful isolation—as evidence of psychological distress. Muriel characteristically waves this off.
Themes
Shifting the conversation to the psychiatrist’s wife, Muriel talks at length about the woman’s figure and horrible dress. Once again, Muriel’s mother steers the conversation back to the psychiatrist, asking if he had any insight on Seymour’s behavior. Muriel says that she didn’t go into specifics, and the bar was so noisy that she could barely hear him anyway. She assures her mother that she’ll have another chance to talk to him, given that he’s in the bar all day long. When her mother asks if the psychiatrist thought Seymour “might get—you know—funny or anything,” Muriel reminds her that the bar was too noisy to really hold a conversation.
The detail that the psychiatrist spends his days in the bar, coupled with Muriel’s shallow preoccupation with fashion and gossip, reflects the culture of overindulgence and materialism at the resort and in American culture more broadly. While the noisy bar gestures to the idea of failed communication, this passage also suggests that what hinders communication the most is a lack of empathy and understanding; Muriel fails to engage in a real conversation with the psychiatrist or with her mother because she doesn’t empathize with Seymour’s mental agony or her mother’s anxiety.
Themes
The women then talk about fashion, the quality of Muriel’s hotel room, and the kinds of people staying at the resort. Suddenly, Muriel’s mother asks again if Muriel is alright and if she wants to come home. Exasperated, Muriel says she’s fine, but her mother presses on, saying that she and Muriel’s father think it would be good for Muriel to have some time away from Seymour to think things through, possibly on a cruise. Muriel tries to say no, but her mother keeps talking, lamenting the fact that Muriel waited for Seymour for the entirety of the war.
Even though Muriel and her mother are talking, they aren’t actually communicating with one another. They consistently cut each other off, for one thing, but they also seem to be talking at one another rather than with one another. This is why Muriel’s mother continues to ask if Muriel is alright—she hasn’t gotten a satisfying answer out of her daughter. This passage also provides the only glimpse readers get of the pre-WWII Seymour, whom Muriel apparently felt was worth waiting for. Compared to Seymour’s odd behavior in the present and Muriel’s mother’s pressing concerns about his mental health, it’s clear that the violence of war is what changed him and their relationship.
Themes
Trying to end the conversation, Muriel says that Seymour has been down on the beach but is bound to return shortly. When her mother asks if he’s been conducting himself properly on the beach, Muriel criticizes her mother for implying that he’s some sort of “raving maniac”—though she does admit that Seymour refuses to take off his bathrobe, even while lying on the beach, because he doesn’t want anyone to look at his tattoo. The girl’s mother is surprised to hear this and asks if he got a tattoo in the Army, but Muriel says no. Her mother insists that Muriel call the moment Seymour does something “funny.” Muriel agrees but declares that she’s not afraid of her husband. They hang up.
Although Muriel suggests her mother is over-reacting—that Seymour is far from being a “raving maniac”—she goes on to admit that he has been talking about having an invisible tattoo. This suggests that Muriel’s mother is perhaps not too far off in being extremely concerned for Seymour’s mental health and Muriel’s well-being. Muriel’s mother seems to be worried that Seymour will seriously hurt Muriel, but she uses the euphemism “funny” (e.g., Seymour will do something “funny” to Muriel), which ties into the idea of failed communication, as she doesn’t say exactly what she means. The tattoo Seymour is referring to seems to be connected to the horrible things he’s witnessed or done in war. He doesn’t want people to be able to have insight into these things just by looking at him, which is why he covers up with the bathrobe.
Themes
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the hotel a little girl named Sybil Carpenter repeats the phrase “See more glass,” much to Mrs. Carpenter’s annoyance. Mrs. Carpenter is putting sun-tan oil on Sybil, who is wearing a yellow two-piece swimsuit—“one piece of which she would not actually be needing for another nine or ten years.” In the background, Mrs. Carpenter’s friend chatters on about a silk handkerchief. Mrs. Carpenter finally dismisses the squirming Sybil, telling her to go play elsewhere.
Sybil is clearly referring to Seymour Glass, but Mrs. Carpenter (perhaps understandably) doesn’t pick up on this and instead shushes her daughter. In this way, the mother and daughter’s dynamic isn’t all that different from the one between Muriel and her mother: one party talks, while the other quiets, minimizes, or ignores the discussion. Mrs. Carpenter’s friend prattling on in the background about a scarf is another reminder that the resort guests—and Americans more generally—are materialistic. The detail about Sybil’s bathing suit top not being filled out for another nine years (in other words, she won’t go through puberty for at least nine years) means that she’s around four or five years old.
Themes
Sybil runs purposefully down the beach and makes a beeline for a drooping sandcastle, which she stomps her foot into. She then walks for a while until she spots a young man lying on the sand in the distance, at which point she runs toward him and asks, “Are you going in the water, see more glass?” The man (Seymour Glass) is startled and immediately draws his bathrobe tighter, but seeing that his unexpected visitor is Sybil, he relaxes and tells her that he was waiting until she arrived to go in the water.
Throughout the story, feet symbolize the idea that innocence isn’t innocent at all. The story engages with that for the first time in this passage, as little Sybil goes out of her way to destroy a sandcastle with her foot, showing her inherent violence, even though she’s a supposedly innocent child. Meanwhile, Seymour’s knee-jerk reaction to human contact is to pull his bathrobe tighter around his body, which suggests that the robe is a security blanket of sorts. The robe symbolizes his isolation from others—he uses it to feel separate from people—but that he relaxes upon seeing Sybil adds nuance to this, suggesting that he’s really only alienated from other adults, not children.
Themes
Sybil announces proudly that her father will be arriving the next day and kicks sand in Seymour’s face; he puts his hand on her ankle. When Sybil asks where “the lady” (Muriel) is, Seymour answers that she could be just about anywhere, like in her room or out getting her hair dyed, and he asks to change the subject. Seymour compliments Sybil’s blue bathing suit, but she emphatically declares that her suit is yellow, not blue; after asking Sybil to come closer, Seymour confirms that she is correct. She again asks if he’s going in the water and points out that his half-deflated rubber float needs air.
As the interaction between Sybil and Seymour unfolds, it begins to seem less and less innocent. Seymour touches Sybil on the ankle, seems uninterested in his wife’s whereabouts, and commands Sybil to come closer, which makes Seymour appear vaguely predatory towards the young girl. His mix-up between the colors blue and yellow is also strange; it’s unclear if he does this on purpose just to entertain Sybil and get a rise out of her, or if he is in such a fragile mental state that he really can’t tell the difference. He also furthers the depiction of his wife as materialistic when he suggests that she may be at the hairdresser’s.
Themes
Grabbing hold of both of Sybil’s ankles, Seymour asks Sybil to tell him about herself. Instead, she accuses him of letting Sharon Lipschutz sit on the piano bench with him. Gravely, Seymour explains that Sharon simply climbed up on the bench while he was playing, and he didn’t want to rudely push her off—instead, he pretended that Sharon was Sybil. After Sybil insists that he should push Sharon off next time, Seymour wistfully says, “Ah, Sharon Lipschutz […] How that name comes up. Mixing memory and desire.”
Seymour’s possibly inappropriate behavior towards Sybil begins to escalate here, as he goes from touching one of her ankles to clasping both of them. His explanation of what happened between him and Sharon adds weight to this, as he’s framing the situation as if he were justifying cheating on Sybil. Of course, Sybil is around four or five years old, and the story later reveals that Sharon is only three and a half years old—so while Sybil is exhibiting childlike jealousy, Seymour seems to be inappropriately sexualizing his friendship with the children. That Seymour is holding Sybil’s ankles during this interaction is another indication that feet and ankles symbolize how what seems like innocence is often tinged with violence.
Themes
Seymour tells Sybil that they can go swimming and look for a bananafish. He sheds his bathrobe, revealing his blue swim trunks, folds his towel neatly, and takes Sybil by the hand. When Seymour asks Sybil where she lives, she claims to not know, but he smugly informs her that “Sharon Lipschutz knows where she lives and she’s only three and a half.” Sybil rips her hand away from Seymour and, after a moment, says she lives in Whirly Wood, Connecticut.
It's surprising that Seymour takes his bathrobe off, since Muriel was just explaining to her mother how he refuses to do so because he doesn’t want anyone to look at his (made-up) tattoo. His willingness to disrobe around Sybil suggests that he’s far more comfortable around children than adults. The moment when Seymour asks Sybil where she lives also toes the line between innocent and violent; he taunts her in a childlike way, trying to make Sharon seem smarter or better than Sybil, which immediately makes Sybil cave and reveal where she’s from. While it’s possible that Seymour is just being childlike, he essentially manipulates a young girl into revealing personal information about herself.
Themes
After interrogating Seymour about whether he’s read Little Black Sambo and if he likes wax and olives (he claims to “never go anyplace without ‘em”), Sybil then asks if he likes Sharon Lipschutz. Seymour admits that he does, explaining that what he likes most about her is that she doesn’t abuse dogs in the hotel, like the one that belongs to the hotel guest from Canada. “You probably won’t believe this, but some little girls like to poke that little dog with balloon sticks,” Seymour says, adding that Sharon is never cruel.
The overlap between innocence and violence appears again in this moment. Sybil’s eccentric and excitable questions reveal her childlike curiosity, but Seymour’s comment about “some little girls” who abuse dogs in the lobby suggests that Sybil was precisely this little girl, and that she has a violent streak. While Seymour just compared Sybil with Sharon to make Sybil reveal personal information about herself, which is somewhat predatory, here he uses this tactic for good, implicitly encouraging Sybil to not be so violent and cruel.
Themes
After a long silence, Sybil announces that she likes to chew candles, to which Seymour responds, “Who doesn’t?” They wade out into the ocean until the water is up to Sybil’s waist, at which point he lays her on her stomach on the raft. She commands him to not let go; he assures her he won’t and declares that it is a “perfect day for bananafish.” He explains that bananafish look like normal fish, but they swim into holes filled with bananas. In the holes, the bananafish feast on bananas until they’re so fat that they can’t fit back out through the hole, at which point they die of banana fever.
Seymour’s story about the titular bananafish seems random and playful, just like Sybil’s own ramblings about things like eating candles. However, given the materialistic culture of the resort (which even his own wife exemplifies), Seymour also seems to be linking the gluttonous bananafish with Americans who have an insatiable appetite for wealth and material goods. That is, they have banana fever, because they are “fevered” or frantic in their gluttony. It’s possible, too, that the bananafish represent soldiers who are regular men when they enter the war but become so overstuffed with violence and trauma that they die a mental, physical, emotional, or even spiritual death.
Themes
Sybil nervously points out an approaching wave. Seymour clasps her ankles tightly and guides her and the raft smoothly over it, which makes Sybil scream with delight. On the other side of the wave, Sybil announces proudly that she saw a bananafish with six bananas in its mouth. At this, Seymour lifts one of Sybil’s wet ankles and kisses the arch of her foot. She yells out “Hey!” in surprise, but he just says “Hey, yourself!” and announces that they’re going back to shore, much to Sybil’s disappointment. Once they reach the sand, Sybil yells goodbye and runs back to the resort “without regret.”
Once again, feet and ankles are linked with innocence and violence. Leading up to this moment, Seymour’s behavior has escalated from touching Sybil’s ankle to grasping both of them; here, he goes so far as to kiss the arch of Sybil’s foot, which is an intimate and sensitive part of the body. Although this surprises Sybil, it doesn’t seem to register with her that is inappropriate behavior (she is sad to have to go back to shore, and she runs “without regret” back to the hotel). Seymour, however, seems to realize that he’s crossed the line, which is why he immediately insists they go back to shore. While he tried to access innocence through his childlike rapport with Sybil, his own behavior was tinged with violence.
Themes
Seymour dons his bathrobe once more, closing it tightly around his body, and he walks back to the hotel. On way up to his room, he accuses a woman in the elevator of staring at his feet, but she assures him that she was only looking at the ground. Seymour continues his rant, saying that if the woman really wanted to look at his feet, she should just make her intentions clear instead of trying to steal secret glances at them. She hurriedly exits the elevator. Seymour says aloud that he has normal feet, and there’s no reason why anyone should look at them.
The symbols of the bathrobe and feet collide here. The bathrobe represents the way that Seymour closes himself off from other adults (and the materialistic, violent world they inhabit), which is why he now puts the bathrobe back on as he returns to the resort. Meanwhile, feet represent the idea that innocence is always tinged with violence—an idea that is clearest in the story when Seymour touches and kisses young Sybil’s feet. So in this passage, tightly wrapped in his bathrobe and self-conscious about someone looking at his feet, Seymour seems to be trying to hide his inappropriate interactions with Sybil from others. Of course, it doesn’t make sense that a stranger in an elevator should be able to know what just happened on the beach between Seymour and Sybil just by looking at Seymour’s feet, but his self-consciousness and anxiety surrounding this possibility point to his own guilt.
Themes
When he reaches his room, Seymour is greeted by the sharp smell of nail-polish remover and new calfskin luggage. He looks at Muriel, who is asleep on one of the twin beds, and then fishes in his luggage for his gun, which he unloads and then reloads. He looks again at Muriel and then sits down on the twin bed next to her. He aims the gun and then shoots himself in the temple.
The smell of the hotel room (nail polish, expensive luggage made from a baby animal) underscores that Muriel is associated with the shallow, materialistic culture that Seymour so despises. Given this, it at first seems like Seymour intends to shoot his wife, since he looks at her frequently as he fetches and loads his gun. The fact that he ultimately shoots himself, though, suggests that he simply can’t stand to live in the shallow, consumeristic world that Muriel represents. Plus, having just lashed out at a woman for supposedly looking at his feet, it seems that Seymour is also deeply disturbed by the way he interacted with Sybil on the beach. In other words, he tried to access innocence and childlike lightness through her, but he ultimately failed, which perhaps made him suicidally distressed.
Themes
