Holden Caulfield and Seymour Glass

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the characters Holden Caulfield, in "The Catcher in the Rye" and Seymour Glass in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish, have many characteristics in common. It looks at how both characters are non-conformists who don't fit in with the traditional American culture, how both have a love for children, and a hatred for "phonies" and how both have an obsession with death.

From the Paper:

"Seymour is interested in the company of four-year old Sybil Carpenter, a child he believes he can save from becoming a "phony". While swimming with the young girl, Seymour tells a tale of fish who swim into holes filled with bananas. These bananafish then gorge themselves on the fruit and, too fat to swim out of the holes, die of banana fever. Seymour is not a bananafish; it is the phonies of the world who are guilty of bingeing themselves with meaningless material objects until they become so superficial they are beyond hope of ever attaining spiritual purity. These people are intentional bananafishes."

More papers on Holden Caulfield and Seymour Glass:

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• Analytical Essay # 64240 : "Holden Caulfield and Huck Finn"

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