Comparing "A Perfect Day for a Bananafish" and "Catcher in the Rye"


"A Perfect Day for a Bananafish" is a short story written by JD Salinger, that is about a young man who has PTSD from WWII. The young man, named Seymour, spent his afternoon on the beach with a young girl and then he went to his hotel, where he shoots himself in the head and kills himself. "Catcher in the Rye" was also written by Salinger and is about a young man named Holden who wanders around NYC after being kicked out of his private school. At the end of the novel it is revealed that Holden is in a mental institution. I believe that Salinger made many connections between these two works.

• The settings of both works are similar. In Catcher, Holden was wandering around New York City and spent many nights in motels. In Bananafish, Muriel was in a motel and recieved a call from her mother from New York City. In both works major scenes occurred in motels: in Catcher there was the scene with the prostitute in the motel and in Bananafish Seymour killed himself in his motel room.
• Both Holden and Seymour were mentally ill from past events in their lives.
• The minor characters are similar. Phoebe, Holden's little sister, represented youth and fun for Holden. He loved talking to Phoebe and often warned her of the dangers of growing up. Holden liked talking to Phoebe because she reminded him what it was like to be young. Sybil was a young girl in Bananafish who spent some time with Seymour on the beach. Seymour enjoyed joking around with Sybil and playing games with her. He did this to try and stay in a youthful state of mind.
• Both Seymour and Holden wanted to go back to being children. Seymour was traumatized from the war and just wanted to go back to a time before his life got complicated. Holden was a young man struggling with the idea of being an adult. Both characters were depressed about their lives and suffered mental breaks and they wanted to return to previous times in their lives.