See Salinger's ideal pursuit from "The Best Day to Catch a Banana Fish."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 story </h1>
The short story is called "The Best Day to Catch a Banana Fish," and the story is divided into three parts.
The first part is a mother-daughter dialogue in which we know that Seymour, the husband of her daughter Muriel, is a psychopath, in the words of this mother: "It is possible to lose complete control at any time." ”
In the second part, Seymour and the little girl Sybil go to the beach to play. In this part Seymour tells Sybil the story of the banana fish.
In the third part, Seymour returns to the hotel from the seashore, and while riding the elevator, she has an argument with a woman with a piece of rubber paste on her nose, he says that the woman looked at his feet, the woman explained that she was just looking at the floor, and as a result he was still cursing and grinning, the woman could only wait for the elevator door to open, and went out without turning her head, Seymour returned to the room, the wife was already asleep, he glanced at the sleeping wife, shot himself.
The end of the short story "The Best Day to Catch a Banana Fish"
Salinger's work was controversial, and when his Catcher in the Rye came out, it was all the rage, some considered it an "extraordinary, talented debut"; more people thought the book was full of truancy, smoking, drinking, sex and profanity, and deviant, so it was banned by many schools in the United States at the time.
However, the work radiated a dazzling light after the silent precipitation of the golden years and became a masterpiece of world literature.
Salinger's short story "The Best Days to Catch a Banana Fish" is also a controversial work. Some of these details are puzzling, especially the ending part.
Wife Muril
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 Why did Seymour commit suicide? </h1>
Seymour, the protagonist of the novel, can be said to be lucky. He survived the war and was lucky enough to survive; his girlfriend had been waiting for him, and now the two were newly married, vacation travel, which would have been a very happy thing. But after a series of plot descriptions, Seymour returns to the hotel and pulls the trigger on his temple in the face of his flower-like, understanding and warm wife. This scene is too cruel! It's also puzzling.
Some people say that Seymour is a psychopath, and his abnormal behavior is difficult to measure with the eyes of ordinary people.
The text also mentions Seamus's abnormal behavior several times, and in the first part of the opening chapter, Muril's mother talks about Seymour, suggesting that she travel alone and will fund her to take a cruise ship, meaning to suggest that the two of them separate. But Muriel explained to her mother one by one and kept stressing that "I'm fine."
Seymour became mentally ill in the eyes of others, and his suicide was premeditated because he carried a pistol with him. This pistol is not used to hurt others, but to "catch a banana fish", and you are the "banana fish"! So, what does "banana fish" stand for? (There is no such fish in the world.)
Muril Comics
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 meaning of banana fish</h1>
Let's first look at the text's description of the banana fish:
"Well, they swim into a hole where there are many bananas. They are still very ordinary fish when they swim in. But as soon as they entered the hole, they were as hungry as pigs. Hey, I just knew there were some banana fish that swam into a banana hole and ate seventy-eight bananas. "He pushed the airbed and the passengers above him another foot toward sea level." Naturally, they eat too fat and can no longer get out of the hole. I couldn't even squeeze out the hole. ”
"Don't go too far offshore," Sybil said. "What happened to them?"
"Alas, I can't bear to tell you, Sybil. They're dead. ”
"Oh, they're getting banana fever. It was a terrible disease. ”
Banana fish (fictional fish in the novel)
From the description in the text, we generally know that "banana fish" refers to fish that eat bananas. There was a hole with a lot of bananas, and the fish could not come out after greedily eating it, and finally got "banana fever" and died.
According to the analysis in the text, "fish" refers to people, metaphorically using things; "bananas" refers to money, wealth, material enjoyment, etc.; the so-called "banana fish" refers to people who are controlled by greed; "banana fever" refers to people's greedy desires, after the war people satisfy material enjoyment, greed and no listening constraints, this disease will cause people to die.
Through this ink, the author reveals the horror of human greed and the horror of being seduced by the material world.
Material greed encompasses too much, with a focus on possessiveness such as money, power, lust, etc. These can make people die of "banana fever".
Salinger
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >04What is the reality? </h1>
Salinger's career choice was to write and become a writer. This is his lifelong pursuit and dream.
While in New York, I started submitting articles to magazines, most of them to make money or to prove their talent. During that time, he wrote a lot of works and submitted them to many publishing houses, but they were rejected one by one. He was disheartened and had doubted his abilities.
Once he approached his writing mentor and expressed his confusion.
The tutor didn't refute him, but simply asked, "Why are you writing?" ”
Salinger, who was just beginning to write, was eager to prove himself, believing that "publishing the work" was the most important thing.
"I love writing. I love writing. Writing makes me happy. The mentor's question opened him up.
Repeatedly rejected by the publisher, he believes that it is his own failure. At that time, his view was that it was concerned with the acceptance of the work by others, not the pleasure of writing itself.
His mentor went on to guide him, "Learning to face rejection is the first lesson a writer has to take." You may never be able to publish, and you will face rejection for the rest of your life. Are you willing to devote your life to writing novels? Even if you get nothing. If the answer is no, then you can go out because you're not a real writer. ”
This statement confronted the soul's question, completely awakened his original intention, and extinguished his pride. For a long time after that, he no longer focused on submitting and publishing, but immersed himself in writing.
During this time, Salinger wrote his short book, "A Good Day to Catch a Banana Fish."
Short Story Collection "Nine Stories"
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >05 Salinger's choice </h1>
The Best Day to Catch a Banana Fish ends with Salinger making a choice for himself with the help of Seymour's pistol, that any lure of profit cannot change his original intentions, and that he can pay with his life.
He does not need to be judged by others, he is not controlled by money, pleasure, lust, and maintains his noblest pursuits.
This was the choice of Salinger, who had just entered the literary world, and he spent his life writing and finally polishing first-class works.
And his later works summarized this ideal:
The sign of a person's immaturity is to die violently for a reason. A sign of a person's maturity is to live humbly for a reason. - "The Catcher in the Rye"
This is the transformation of Salinger's thinking!
Therefore, the real Salinger will not take a drastic approach to his ideals, but in a humble way to make writing accompany him throughout his life!
The themes of the work are multifaceted, and only one of them has been analyzed here.
We conclude our inquiry into the text with Salinger's famous quote: "There is nothing to say, it's all in the book." ”