A Perfect Day for Bananafish

by

J. D. Salinger

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on A Perfect Day for Bananafish makes teaching easy.

Seymour’s Bathrobe Symbol Analysis

Seymour’s Bathrobe Symbol Icon

Near the beginning of the story, Muriel complains to her mother that Seymour refuses to take his bathrobe off, which she flippantly attributes to him wanting to hide his pale complexion. However, his bizarre attachment to the bathrobe actually symbolizes how he closes himself off to other adults and the adult world they inhabit. Indeed, when the story introduces Seymour a few pages later, he’s lying on the beach with his eyes closed, but he’s bundled up in his robe. When Sybil walks up and startles him, Seymour’s hand instinctively flies up to the lapels of his robe, as if he were closing it tighter and closing himself off from the interaction. But when Seymour notices that the visitor is a child, he relaxes, and it’s not long before he takes off his robe entirely to go swimming with her. That Seymour so willingly sheds his robe, which appears to be a kind of security blanket for him, reveals that he’s much more comfortable with children than adults, and it points to the thematic idea that he is drawn to the innocence that children represent. True to form, when Seymour leaves Sybil’s company and walks back to his hotel, he puts his robe back on and “close[s] the lapels tight,” closing himself back up both physically and emotionally as he prepares to reenter the adult world.

More specifically, it seems that the bathrobe symbolizes Seymour’s attempt to conceal his wartime experiences—and resulting psychological trauma—from others. After first writing off Seymour’s behavior as simple embarrassment about his pasty skin, Muriel eventually admits to her mother that Seymour wears the bathrobe so that people don’t stare at his tattoo. Surprised, her mother asks if Seymour got a tattoo in the army, and Muriel says no—he doesn’t have a tattoo. With this, the story implies that this invisible tattoo that Seymour is desperate to cover up is a stand-in for Seymour’s experiences in World War II. He worries that people will see these experiences—and his subsequent psychological trauma—just by looking at him, and so bundling himself up in the bathrobe is a way for him to close himself off from other people.

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Seymour’s Bathrobe Symbol Timeline in A Perfect Day for Bananafish

The timeline below shows where the symbol Seymour’s Bathrobe appears in A Perfect Day for Bananafish. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Perfect Day for Bananafish
Sanity and Social Norms Theme Icon
Communication and Isolation Theme Icon
Innocence and Violence Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Sanity and Social Norms Theme Icon
Innocence and Violence Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Sanity and Social Norms Theme Icon
Innocence and Violence Theme Icon
...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.... (full context)
Sanity and Social Norms Theme Icon
Wealth and Materialism Theme Icon
Innocence and Violence Theme Icon
Seymour dons his bathrobe once more, closing it tightly around his body, and he walks back to the hotel.... (full context)