A Perfect Day For Bananafish
The worst crime a man can commit is robbing another man of his life. Murder is a capital offense when it occurs on United States soil, but when a soldier kills dozens on enemy territory, they are declared a hero. What many don't understand is the moral conflict that takes place within anyone who takes another life; a war of emotions -- regret, depression, pain -- is waged against a faux exterior of happiness. On the outside, a veteran may put on a mask of security, but inside guilt fights against this mask, putting cracks in the clay that grow increasingly large. Seymour Glass from J. D. Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", is a war veteran who returns home changed by the feats he was able to accomplish. Though he appears perfectly average, Seymour's inner turmoil occasionally shines through the mask: a suicidal man who is unable to live with the emotions caused by war. By killing someone, they murder takes two lives: the victim's and their own.
Anyone who is able to kill a man in cold blood must also be ready to face the consequences. Normal murders are thrown in jail, but veterans are jailed by their emotions. Seymour, who is really Salinger, returns home from war with the weight of what he's done on his shoulders. After being ostracized by his peers, Seymour meets Sybil, a small child who hold no judgment towards him. While at the beach with Sybil, Seymour tells the story of the Bananafish: a fish that swims into a hole in the ocean and eats so many bananas that it becomes too bloated to escape, and so it dies of Banana Fever. Seymour, who is Salinger, is also the real Bananafish in the story. He went to war, where he performed hideous acts of violence, and saddled with all the emotions because of this, he returned to normal life. But how can you return to normalcy when you are the only one who feels the way that you do? In the end, Seymour ends his life instead of having to live with his emotions. War is the hole that many fall into and are force-fed emotions just as the Bananafish was given bananas. Death is the end of the cycle and the only escape from the multitude of emotions.
Salinger knew firsthand how disastrous the effects of war were. As a young adult, he was enrolled in the Army and fought in World War II. Returning home, Salinger felt isolated as he was one of the few who had to bear the guilt, the regret, the pain. Though others could try to bear the load with him, he was alone with his emotions to which no one could relate. As a form of coping, Salinger created character in his stories that had the same experiences as him in an attempt to show the world what veterans had to go through. To me, Salinger seems like the type of person who would have opposed the draft; the forced entry of young boys into the world of torture that he knew. With that said, both Seymour and Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, live during the draft, and have similar traits in the way that they both descend slowly into a madness caused by their own inner demons. Depression is something no one should have to bear alone, but more often than not, the load has to be held alone.
It's been said that when you murder, your soul is damaged beyond repair. To kill someone in the army and then have to pretend to be a glamorous celebrity upon your arrival home must be quite a challenge. Everyone expects you to be cheery, but within, war heroes are really tortured souls. By killing someone, either by accident or with malicious intent, you damage your own humanity.
