简析香蕉鱼.doc

A Brief Discussion about Seymours Death in A Perfect Day for Bananafish Abstract: The short story is about a young couple, Seymour Glass and Muriel, spend their vacation in Florida. While Muriel is phoning with her mother, Seymour is lying on the beach, enjoying sunshine. Then he waves in the water with a little girl, Sybil, and tells her a tragic story about bananafish, which stuff themselves on bananas, die. Then he returns to the hotel, where his wife is asleep. He retrieves a handgun and fires a bullet through his temple. This paper will discuss the reasons of Seymours death through the authors experience, social background and the failure of marriage, thus draws a conclusion about the authors intentions. Key words: bananafish death social background marriage摘要：逮香蕉鱼的最佳日子主要讲述了青年夫妻西摩和妻子穆里尔在海边度假的一天。穆里尔待在宾馆房间和母亲通电话，谈论西摩这几天行为、西摩的送给她的德国诗集，和衣服、流行趋势。她母亲非常担心西摩会做出什么奇诡的事来，想让穆里尔快点回家去。穆里尔对此毫不担心也并不在意。而此时，西摩却在沙滩上晒太阳。他随后跟一个小女孩西比尔下海玩水，西摩给西比尔讲了香蕉鱼的故事，这种鱼游进香蕉洞贪吃香蕉，吃很多以至于不能出来，最后死于香蕉热。他回到宾馆房间，穆里尔在床上睡着了，他找到了一把自动手枪结束了自己的生命。本文通过对作者的战争经历、社会背景及婚姻关系解析西摩自杀的原因。关键词：香蕉鱼 死亡原因 作者经历 社会背景 婚姻关系1. Introduction In 1948, J.D. Salinger wrote his short story A Perfect Day for Bananafish with the most enigmatic ending, leaving readers trying to figure out his intentions. This paper will examines the reasons of Seymours death focusing on Salingers World War II experience and the connection between Salingers stories and his post-traumatic stress. the reason will be approached in two aspects: the social background and their marriage. A Perfect Day for Bananafish is originally published in the New Yorker. It was anthologized in 1949s 55 Short Stories from The New Yorker, as well as in Salingers 1953 collection, Nine Stories. It is the first of his stories to feature a member of the fictional Glass family where his later stories are based. The main character Seymour Glass first appeared in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and later further depicted in Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction and Franny and Zooey. Seymour is a somewhat strange character, and perhaps like his creator, especially difficult to understand. In order to figure out the reason of his weird death, I search some information about J.D. Salinger, I find there is strange coincidence between Seymour and Salinger himself.2. Plot summaryThe story was begun with ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, they almost monopolizing the long-distance lines. It is a very common scenario in a high speeding commercial society. Then the scene shift to a young woman, Muriel Glass, brushes her nails waiting her phone call. “She is a kind of person who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty.” Through her talking, we can sense that her husband, Seymour, is a war veteran from World War II. Given that Seymours strange “funny” behavior, such as driving a car crushing on a tree and speak to granny about her passing away plans, her mother is desperately worried about her safety, thought that Seymour would lose control of himself, urging Muriel packing home. Muriel seems not pay much attention on this, regarding her mothers concern as unnecessary and saying “Im not afraid of Seymour.” The second part is a little girl, Sybil Carpenter, “wearing a canary-yellow two-piece bathing suit, one piece of which she would not actually be needing for another nine or ten years.” Her mother is putting suntan oil to the child then leaving her playing alone. Unsurprisingly, he heads for Seymour who is lying on the beach. She deliberately calls Seymour “see more glass”. Seymour casually suggests that they catch a Bananafish”. Seymour wades into the water, putting the girl on a rubber raft, proceeds to tell her the imaginary tale of the bananafish, living a tragic life dying of greed for banana. On the way to hotel, Seymour has a quarrel with a lady in an elevator about his feet. In the room, where his wife is asleep, He takes out an automatic handgun from his luggage and takes his own life.3. Analysis of Seymours death 3.1 Social Background and Authors Own ExperienceSalinger was draft to war after Pearl Harbor. Salinger lands at Normandy on D-Day and endures 11 months of continuous combat, participating in 5 major campaigns. During this period, he insisting wrote stories. But by wars end he was hospitalized for few weeks for combat stress reaction after the Germany was defeated. In 1953, after the success of his novel, Salinger decided to move to an unspoiled farmhouse deep in the woods of upstate New York, not far away from the Canadian border. Salinger was living as a recluse and nearly stopped his writing for a period until his death. We know that in the story Seymour is a war veteran from World War II and recently discharged from an Army hospital, where he was presumably treated for psychiatric disorders. What he did in the story is showing symptoms of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder-widely acknowledged to be a severe type of anxiety disorder and very much a real disease-which wasnt known in Salingers time. According to a study conducted in 2008 by RAND Corporation, nearly 20% of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan 300,000 in all-report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment.It is obvious that Seymour is suffering from PTSD, he prefers to stay alone, playing piano two nights while Muriel is socializing, talking with other people. He lying on the beach wearing his bathrobe, “doesnt want a lot of fools looking at his tattoo”. Actually there isnt any tattoo in his body. His actions are seen abnormal and bizarre by ordinary people. After WWII, American economy boomed promptly, people can buy things that their parents had never before been able to see. The society is changing in a way that he cant keep up with anymore. This made him hard to fit into the modern society. What is more, Salinger confessed that the young man in Bananafish “was not Seymour at all but.myself.” During this time, women were the target audience of marketing campaigns for products ranging from kitchen appliances to luxury clothes to magazines. For a returning solider like Salinger or Seymour who was coming home from a devastated Europe, this new American boom led to disorientation and unease. Traumatized by the Battle of the Bulge and the Nazi concentration camps, Salinger “found it impossible to fit into a society that ignored the truth that he now knew.” 3.2 marriage failureNow lets talk about Muriel, we see she is luxuriating in wealthshe wears a white silk dressing gown, fixes her Saks blouse, meticulously brushes her nails, and uses fine leather luggage. She reads pocket-sized magazine, called “Sex Is Fun-or Hell”, throws a German poetry book Seymour given her. She cares more about her clothes and the fashion than her husbands inner world and emotional change. Even when her mother is worried Seymours funny behavior, she seems care not about those. Muriels obsession with material goods alienates Seymour from Muriel and her world. She is talking with other people while Seymour playing piano. They seem have no communications with each other. When Sybil asked Seymour where his lady is, Seymour tells Sybil that is hard to say, Muriel may be getting her hair dyed “mink.” He is alone and feels estrangement from others, calling his wife “Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948”. Sybil Carpenter and Sharon Lipshutz, two very young girls seem to be the only people Seymour feels he is able to connect with. Noticed or not, we see that this couple shares one room separated beds, which reveals their inharmonious marriage life. It seems that their minds never meet. It is not a unique instance, but has its counterpart. in1941, Salinger himself had a failed relationship with his girlfriend, Oona ONeill who eventually married Charlie Chaplin.4. Conclusion All reasons described above finally lead Seymours death. Salinger depicts Seymour in his later stories, we know that he was an incredibly gifted child because at the age of six he starts to frequent the New York Public Library and reads everything he can find. Seymour is the bananafish-the imaginary creatures that gorge themselves on bananas and then die of banana fever. At first, he is an ordinary people like an ordinary bananafish, then suffered so much tragedy and mostly -the war. Seymour, an outsider in a world which full o