A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J. D. Salinger - Short Story Summary, Analysis, Review
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- Welcome to the CodeX Cantina where our mission is to get more people talking about books! Today we look at "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J. D. Salinger from the collection Nine Tales. Salinger has a knack for using children to represent innocence. This is a haunting tale with "shell shock" or PTSD impacting a vet's attempt to reintegrate into society.
J. D. Salinger Playlist: • A Perfect Day for Bana...
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Books or Stories Mentioned in this Video:
"Nine Tales" by J. D. Salinger amzn.to/3cZCMa2
Channels Mentioned in this Video:
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#JDSalinger
#APerfectDayforBananafish
#NineTales
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Introductions
0:33 Publication, Author, & Themes
1:49 Plot Summary
2:23 Analysis
20:03 Wrap Up and Ratings
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====Copyright Info====
Song: Infinite
Artist: Valence
Licensed to CZcams by: AEI (on behalf of NCS); Featherstone Music (publishing), and 1 Music Rights Societies
Free Download/Stream: • Valence - Infinite | F...
J. D. Salinger Playlist; czcams.com/video/aZqDKNFUNv0/video.html
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:33 Publication, Author, & Themes
1:49 Plot Summary
2:23 Analysis
20:03 Wrap Up and Ratings
This was absolutely fascinating. Now I see why Josh said what he said - it totally fits with me reading Slaughterhouse Five too.
Sure does!
Such a heartbreaking story 💔 All of Salinger's Nine Stories are just so shattering, from what I remember! Great breakdown!
I’ll have to read more!
@@TheCodeXCantina I think you would like the story Teddy 🤔
@@TheCodeXCantina I actually enjoyed his short stories 10,000x more than The Catcher in the Rye 😅
It wasn't until the end that I realized what this story was truly about. I spent the whole of this story being creeped out wondering what Seymour was going to do to the little girl, and it turned out it was pure innocence the entire time. I was waiting for him to kill her or molest her or something, and it never happened. When he kissed her foot, that was just the creepiest thing and then he left. Turns out I spent the entirety of the book worrying about the wrong thing. Maybe in 1948 readers would have been more likely to see this relationship as innocent the entire time, but a 21st century audience just can't help but fear for the little girl. I'll give it a 6/10.
Yeah, I probably had pre-loaded some expectations going into it personally.
I really enjoyed hearing your analysis. thank you very much for the explanation and video!
This has made me realize I am missing my copy of "Nine Stories." I remember this one being my favorite from the Glass family. You two always have some great observations that I have never heard anyone else pick up on. The colors, yellow and blue coming together to represent the army. Though that seems like a stretch, it does sound like something Salinger would do.
I had no idea there were more Glass family stories until we posted this video. Very cool. Just more stuff I’ll need to see more of now 😂
Great discussion, love this story!
Awesome. Did you have other Salinger stories you'd recommend?
I liked your careful analysis.I would give it a 9.
Why did he (see more glass) mad of the woman in the elevator? He had nice time with the girl and suddenly he acted not even-tempered. Why?
Always really loved this story and most of his work.
What's the next story to check out?
@@TheCodeXCantina Any of the stories about the Glass family. I really like Seymour: An Introduction and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters. I think you might need to read Franny & Zooey before that to know more about the family first. Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut is in Nine Stories, so is Down at the Dinghy. Maybe even Hapworth 16, 1924, but it's not in Nine Stories so I've never read it.
Interesting analysis!!
I love this story so much!
There are still a lot of mysteries though, they make this story interesting more and more because we can make any interpretations! Also, I’m into J.D.Salinger’s religious perspective!
Thank you for this wonderful discussion video :)
Indeed. Many ways to take great stories!
Nice discussion, as always! Krypto brought the WWII firearm trivia!
This is a very unsettling story. I remember not enjoying it when I first read it. The other Glass stories really flesh out Seymour Glass as a character and how significant and loved he was by his family. I don’t know if I can separate this story from those later ones in terms of the small but wrenching view we have of his life here.
Hope you’re both well!
Best, Jack
He's got it all! I'd like to get to move of the stories some day.
_Oooo,_ Ive been waiting for this ... Im behind on Salinger publications, new, but I read the biography. There was a time--30 yr's ago--where I researched him, his stories in "The New Yorker," on microfiche. "Yellow & Blue make Green!" 🎨 "That gun!" Krypto, great fact/point.
Nice! I really don't know too much. I will need to educate myself some day.
I often think the return home from WWII must have been very difficult for soldiers. WWII was a huge victory . The good war. We ended fascism and made the world safe for democracy so I imagine veterans had to suppress their painful memories for the unique reason that people at home were calling them heroes and assuming they were proud of what they had done. Salinger and Vonnegut (maybe Mailer) Show how deep the scars the war left on veterans actually were.
Also, in Greek mythology a Sybil is an Oracle a “seer” . I don’t remember the story well enough to know if this factors in the story. (Did you talk about this and I missed it?)
Thanks Brian. No, I think we didn’t pick up on any Greek allusions in our talk.
@@TheCodeXCantina I have no idea if the name is even significant in the story. Just a random thought. Great job as always.
When analyzing the story myself, I felt like the tattoo was either a physical scar from the war (hence why he didn't want to have to explain it with all the other stuff he's going through), or the emotional scars that might show themselves when he's not masked by clothing, or by a towel on his face.
👍
Took the words out of my mouth. I am not a historian but a WWII enthusiast and I have never heard of soldiers getting tattooed by the nazis. I may be wrong but I have never heard if that. And seeing as Salinger was there I can’t imagine he would have embellished such a detail.
After Banana fish JD was written mostly about Glass family - Seymour: An Introduction, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, Franny & Zooey. I watched a documentary about him., Although after four novels, plus nine stories, he did not publish any book more, but he wrote the whole life. All unpublished books, according to the words of his numerous wives, were about Glass family.Greetings from Sebia. Sorry for broken English.
Thank you. I will read more of Salinger's work.
When you read about Salinger’s life, his experiences during the invasion of Normandy and the liberation of concentration camps in Germany, you begin to view his stories from a different point of view. Several of his short stories between his discharge from the army in 1945, leading up to The Catcher In The Rye in 1951, are an artistic expression of his trauma and post traumatic stress. It was the only acceptable way of attempting to heal thyself and the world. Salinger lost faith in humanity due to his war experiences. He ended up believing that both sides were savage, irredeemable. A closer look at the various symbols in A Perfect Day For Bananafish reveals that Seymour represents Western Civilization. In French Seymour means saint.
Thanks for sharing
I forgot to mention. A Perfect Day For Bananfish is a great work of art.
Indeed!
I loved the video and absolutely enjoyed the review and your interpretation for this story.
I think it’s great you can share your point of view and bring some new ideas.
All tho I would like to correct you about the tattoo theme.
In the holocaust they numbered people only in 2 concentration camp, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II. The natzis numbered Jews and Soviet POWs, so the tattoo that Seymour is trying so hard to hide can’t be a number on his arm. In my opinion the tattoo is the trauma he has. Like you said in the video, war scar is not only physical it can also be mental. I think that Seymour’s emotional scar and trauma are so hard that he feels that people can see it on him and it is visible on his body (we can connect it to the end of the story, when he said that his feet are perfectly fine).
In addition we can see 2 dominant colors in the story, blue and yellow. The blue (the ocean room with the piano, the ocean itself, his and Sybil’s (in his eyes) swimsuits) represents Seymour’s inside world, the childhood, the innocence, the truly important things. The yellow (sunny florida, sand, Muriel’s bronzer, the guests) on the other hand represents the shallowness, materialisms, the people around him.
Seymour is trying to get away from the yellow world and keep his inside blue world, so he goes to lie on the yellow sand in front of the blue ocean (another explanation for why he is with a robe).
In his eyes, kids belong to the blue world with their imagination and innocence. Maybe this is why Seymour sees Sybil’s yellow bathing suit and mistaken it to a blue one.
Anyway I really enjoyed your point of view and thought of the story and wanted to share some of mine:)
Thanks and we are quite familiar with this information. I don't think we know which specific camp if at all was referred to here do we? It's been a while since this talk so I am not sure what you're referring to. The tattoo was a vague reference and if I recall Salinger was Jewish in heritage so may have been just alluding to that horror was kind of my line of inquiry. I'm not sure I understand your point about the specific camps as that information wasn't given, was it? But thank you for chipping in the information.
@@TheCodeXCantina Yes, you are totally right, there was no information about the camps. But you guys thought that the tattoo might be a number so I just said that there is no possibility that he got numbered because people got numbered only in 2 camp and there is no way that as a soldier he was in one of them (we can know it bc we can infer that he fought in Germany and the camp were only in Poland).
This was basically my point:)
@@EmilieT2002 thanks for sharing 👍
Thanks for another video. For a really deep dive into Salinger’s short stories read “Teaching Salinger’s Nine Stories”
by Brad McDuffie. It’s a revelation. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. If only we could hear from Salinger himself what these stories were really about.
Thanks for sharing!
I always wonder what it would be like if these were turned into films
Pretty dark sounding piece of fiction 🔥 I need to read more post war literature
Hey Josh!! 👋
@@TheNerdyNarrative hey Lezlie 👍 I am slowly trying to catch up on some booktube videos today. Working my way around the Internet lol
We all have a long list of ought-to-reads :D
I feel, we are not reading the story itself, are we reading ourselves.
5 of 10
I work with bananas constantly....i loathe them 😂
He goes off on them in today's video :D
Coming home after war. People coming home after Vietnam also suffered immensely. Also, people didn’t welcome home the Vets. Worse, perhaps. And what about all of the conflicts afterwards and before Vietnam’s:Korea and Afghanistan. Iraq. Talk about PTSD!!!!!!
Indeed. I was sloppy with my words on that in regards to Total War concepts vs an individual's case of PTSD and return from war and that wasn't positioned correctly.
Is there have movie called Bananfish?
There are some shorts and an anime that I’m aware of.
@@TheCodeXCantina Thank you, Dear friend.
Thank you💋💐💋very much, very💥 interesting video,😍just like me,🔥 thank 😍you 😘much for your 🔥prosperity and success😍💋❤️💐🔥👍
So nice of you
I don't like the story so dumb imo and make me confused