J.D. Salinger Essay, Research Paper

J. D. Salinger

In each short story by J. D. Salinger, a main character struggles with a question concerning different factors in their own life. Some of the noticeable and repetitious themes in Salinger?s stories are Appearance vs. Reality; Adults vs. Children; Sanity vs. Insanity; and the meaning of life. The only difference is the way each character deal with the problems.

In Salingers story, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Seymore Glass is a young man on Vacation in Florida that was with his wife who is as beautiful as can be and in love with the man, Seymore once was. After the war, the army put Seymore into a mental institution due to his major case of shell shock that he received from the war. For this reason, Seymore went from sanity in an insane world, to his strive not to be insane in the world he lives in. While on vacation he meet a young girl on the beach, Sybil she called herself, was about 5 years old. Seymore enjoyed talking to Sybil, she reminded him of the man he once was as if the was never happened. One time Seymore and Sybil went swimming in the ocean to look for Bananafish. These ?Bananafish? were symbolic to the soldiers that went into the war. Just as he was like a Bananafish, before the war he went into the war normal, and if they were able to live through the war you would not be excepted into the society that they live in. Sybil went back to her room and Seymore did the same. Seymore sees a woman staring at his feet. Seymore turns form a ?sane men? to a man that knows he needs to come to grips with the reality with his life.

The story starts off with Sargent X that sent home by the army. Sargent X returns home and receives an invitation to a wedding back in Europe. Like Sargent X?s peers, he was dispassionate about the war. He was trying to fight for his sanity in an insane world, caused by the war. Sargent X started to think about life as in depth, just as if anyone would do right before they die. He realizes that he might never see his wife and family again, so he walks along a road appreciating life at the fullest. After talking to her, he sees what a father feels about their child. Thus, has more reason to live through the war to become a father. Esme helps him through to war just by being a child.

Throughout all of Salinger main characters, Sargent X understands the meaning of life more than most people will throughout their entire life.

The final story we will be talking about by J. D. Salinger is Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes. Unlike Seymore and Sargent X battling with the effects of a war, Arthur is battling with himself. To start it all off, Arthur, just lost maybe the largest lawsuit case in his life. Arthur has come home to his ?happy home? to take comfort to his loving wife. Once he comes home, Arthur notices that his wife was not home, so he calls Lee to unload his problems. When Arthur speaks to Lee on the to suspect that his wife and his best friend Lee are having an affair. When Arthur realizes that his life is falling apart. Everything that he knows, he loves and trusts; he was wrong. For Arthur he needs to find some type of structure in his life before he commits suicide.

Throughout these short stories by J. D. Salinger, each character has to find a way to deal with their problems no matter. Salinger does a great way to go into detail on what happens to these characters and what they do to solve their own problems. People say that Salinger creates these characters to show how people go and deal with problems, that concern people with similar problems. Just so, we can learn from them without actually going through these occurrences, and learn from them.

A Perfect Day for Bananafish

Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes