The characters in Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” seem to exist in opposite worlds. On one hand, Salinger creates Muriel to represent materialism and superficiality and on the other hand, he creates Sybil to provide justification of the child-like innocence rarely found in society. Salinger’s main character, Seymour, is aware of the superficiality expressed in Muriel’s world and chooses not to be apart of it. Seymour wants to be apart of the simple immaterial world that Sybil represents. Nevertheless, Seymour find himself trapped between two worlds unable to regain the one he desires. Therefore, Salinger bases “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” on Seymour’s disillusionment with life and his inability to regain a child-like perception of the world. Salinger’s portrayals Seymour and his wold are described below. Sybil is composed of all the characteristics Seymour is seeking. She is young, innocent and childlike and therefore not polluted by the materialism, mistrust and snobbery known to society. Furthermore, her actions suggest that she relates to Seymour because he seems to act like a child somewhat similar to herself (for example Sybil feels secure around Seymour but feels insecure when sitting with her own mother). This would imply that Seymour does not appear abnormal to her because she, unlike most, she has the ability to see through his exterior and is not intimidated by what she has found. In the later part of the story she continually repeats the phase “see more glass”(10) using the term “glass” to describe her own unique ability to see through the transparency of superficial people (much like her own mother). What Seymour respects most about Sybil is that she is to innocent to apply or make judgments upon what she sees, she is only able to blindly comment on its happenings. For instance, when referring to how many tigers ran around ...
