"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is a short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by J. D. Salinger

J. D. Salinger

Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....

, originally published in the January 31, 1948 issue of The New Yorker

The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

. It was anthologized in 1949's 55 Short Stories from the New Yorker

55 Short Stories from the New Yorker

55 Short Stories from the New Yorker is a literary anthology of short fiction first published in The New Yorker magazine from the years 1940 through 1949.-Story content:...

as well as in Salinger's 1953 collection, Nine Stories

Nine Stories (Salinger)

Nine Stories is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger released in May 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor". Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American...

. It is the first of his stories to feature a member of the fictional Glass family

Glass family

The Glass family is a group of fictional characters that have been featured in a number of J. D. Salinger's short stories. All but one of the Glass family stories were first published in The New Yorker; several of them have been collected and published in the compilations Nine Stories, Raise High...

; following Seymour Glass and his wife on a vacation in Florida.

The story, originally titled "A Fine Day for Bananafish", was an important one in Salinger's career. The New Yorker, which at the time had published only one of his stories, accepted "Bananafish" for immediate publication and, because of its "singular quality," signed Salinger to a contract giving them right of first refusal

Right of first refusal

Right of first refusal is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transaction with a third party...

 on any future stories. Upon its publication, the story was met with immediate acclaim; according to Salinger biographer Paul Alexander, it was "the story that would permanently change his standing in the literary community."

When Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...

 wanted to buy the rights to the story, Salinger refused the request, but told his friend Lillian Ross

Lillian Ross (journalist)

Lillian Ross is an American journalist and author who has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1945. She was born in Syracuse, New York, the daughter of Louis and Edna Ross. With the exception of her memoir Here but Not Here, about her relationship with William Shawn, she has been...

, longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, "She's a cute, talented, lost enfante, and I'm tempted to accommodate her, pour le sport."

Plot summary

The story details Seymour's day on the beach, as his wife, Muriel, spends her time in a hotel room talking to her mother on the phone about clothing and Seymour's behavior. She asks about the location of a book by a German poet which Seymour sent her, but which she had never read. Seymour is concerned about many obscure things, such as people staring at his feet, and wears a bathrobe on the beach to avoid people staring at a tattoo which he does not have. While in the water, Seymour tells a story of the bananafish to a young girl named Sybil. The fish, he says, are "very ordinary looking" when they swim into a hole, but once in the hole, eat so much they cannot escape and subsequently die of banana fever. He then returns to his room where Muriel is sleeping, retrieves a gun from his luggage, sits down in the bed next to hers and shoots himself in the right temple.

Analysis

The short story is recognized for its technical achievement as well as the macabre sense of humor inherent in much of Salinger's works. Some critics focused on symbolism. Salinger used dialogue in the first section of the story to describe the shallowness of Muriel and her mother. The second section begins with Sybil Carpenter, a young girl wearing a two-piece swim suit, saying "see more glass." Her mother is also talking about clothes, similar to Muriel's mother. Seymour isolates himself on the beach, and his answers to Sybil's question of "where is the lady?" make it clear he is discouraged with her. There are many interpretations of the motives for his suicide, and at least one contrasts his "vulgar, destructive" wife and the "clean, pure" aspect of little Sybil.