Language
The language of the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger is relatively easy to follow because the choice of words reflects everyday language, and because of the extensive simple dialogue passages. Most of the words are related to the semantic field of vacation at the seaside.
However, because the author conveys a very authentic dialogue, with speech breaks and without any comments, sometimes it may be hard to grasp the details of the story’s plot:
"Not yet. They want four hundred dollars, just to--."
"Mother, Seymour told Daddy that he’d pay for it. There’s no reason for -."
"Well, we’ll see. How did he behave—in the car and all?"
"All right," said the girl.
"Did he keep calling you that awful--."
A few narrative and descriptive passages are also inserted and help readers relate to the setting or expose characters’ actions while they are alone and not talking.
Apart from these general features, J. D. Salinger also relies on several linguistic features which make the short story more appealing:
- Imagery
- Allusions
- Similes
- Repetition
- Symbols
Imagery
By the term “imagery”, we mean the mental images an author conveys with the aid of descriptive words. In this short story, imagery is conveyed mostly with regards to the way the characters act and the setting such as in the following examples:
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Allusions
Three allusions to other literary works are included in the story. Firstly, the German poet Seymour sent a book to Muriel, whom he describes as “the only great poet of the century”, is most likely Rainer Maria Rilke who was very popular before and after World War II.
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Repetition
A few repetitions further contribute to giving authenticity to the dialogue in the story and help suggest character traits. For instance, Muriel constantly calls her mother ‘dear’ (3 times) or ‘darling’ (3 times) which suggests her emphatic and superior way of talking.
The verb “to like” appears often and helps to suggest the language that might be used in a genuine conversation with a rather spoiled,...
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Symbols
Quite a few elements in the short story function as symbols.
First of all, the most important symbol in the story is the bananafish. This imaginary species of fish functions as a metaphor or as an allegory of the consumerist society in post-war America: “"Well, they swim into a hole where there’s a lot of bananas. They’re very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs.”
Equally, the reference to “banana fever” suggests Seymour views consumerism as a disease; people’s desire to have more things and their focus on appearances become similar to a fever.
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