A relationship between any two people can only succeed if there is communication involved. Communication is defined as, “the successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings.” Two people must know how to communicate with each other effectively while talking with each other rather than at each other. They must know what one another are thinking and what makes them uncomfortable or what they do or don’t like. They must be open with each other and be able to listen and support one another. Lack of communication leads to unhappy people, distrust, and lots of conflict in a relationship. No communication means no true relationship between two people. In the short story by J.D. Salinger called, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, there are many relationships. For instance, Muriel and Seymour, Muriel and her mother, and, Seymour and Sybil. While there is some communication between these characters throughout the story, the communication is not good or effective. For example Seymour and Sybil have a conversation in the short story, but the conversation is meaningless and it is not effective. Seymour does not get satisfaction out of the conversation because he is not able to communicate his true feelings. These characters try to communicate with each other but each effort fails. The lack of communication throughout this short story leads to worried people, misunderstandings, and mishappenings. 

Throughout the short story, we never actually hear a conversation between Muriel and Seymour. In fact, they are never together in the story except at the very end for a short amount of time. Although Muriel and Seymour are never together, therefore cannot have a conversation, the text still shows us how they don't communicate well. In the very beginning of the story, Muriel and her mother have a conversation. Her mother repeatedly asks her if she is okay. She is worried about her. Muriel keeps saying she is fine but we can see she isn’t communication with

her mother what is really going on by avoiding talking about some things, especially involving Seymour. Muriel’s mother is also concerned that her and Seymour do not communicate well. She asks many questions throughout their conversation. She is worried about both Muriel and Seymour but Muriel doesn’t see an issue. 

Seymour and Sybil’s conversation is crucial to the development of the story and there is a lot we learn from it. What Seymour says to Sybil doesn’t always make sense but if we look closely and think about it, there is a bigger meaning in it. For example, when Sybil asks, “Where’s the lady?” (6). And Seymour responds, “That’s hard to say, Sybil. She may be in any of a thousand places. At the hairdresser’s. Having her hair dyed mink. Or making dolls for poor children in her room” (6). The lady, we are assuming is Muriel. Seymour seems to answer quickly and says that he has no idea. This shows us that Muriel and Seymour do not communicate well. Clearly this doesn’t mean anything to Sybil but this is a way to show the readers that Seymour and Muriel do not have good communication.  Another way Seymour communicates is when he asks Sybil to catch bananafish with him. Seymour says, “"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. Why, I’ve known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas” (8). Seymour is communicating

something with the audience. The bananafish he is talking about aren't just some made up fish. Seymour is using the bananafish to talk about his PTSD that he and other war veterans have. This is the only way he communicates that he is battling this from the war. Since he can’t communicate this with even his wife, he has to use Sybil to let out what he is feeling.  As he keeps on talking to Sybil and the way he responds to her, we can see that Seymour is unstable and he needs someone to talk to about his problems. Since Sybil will not understand that there is something wrong with Seymour, I think it makes it easy for Seymour to talk to her and communicate with her.

The only true communication throughout the whole story happens at the very end. It is not the kind of communication you would think of, but Seymour resorts to this because he could not communicate in any other way. The lack of communication throughout the wholes story forces Seymour to resort to this as a way of communicating how he really felt. The last sentences of the story are, “He glanced at the girl lying asleep on one of the twin beds. Then he went over to one of the pieces of luggage, opened it, and from under a pile of shorts and undershirts he took out an Ortgies calibre 7.65 automatic. He released the magazine, looked at it, then reinserted it. He cocked the piece. Then he went over and sat down on the unoccupied twin bed, looked at the girl, aimed the pistol, and fired a bullet through his right temple” (9). Seymour looks at “the girl” which we assume is Muriel, several times before he kills himself. I think he looks at her so many times because he wished that they could have communicated better. I think the author is showing that Seymour didn’t want to do this but he saw no other way. 

Not only did the lack of communication lead to Seymour ending his life, it left Muriel’s mother worried and Muriel confused. Lack of communication never leads to something good and if Muriel had just reached out a little more to her husband, maybe the story would have ended differently. Communication is a key part of life and it affects any situation. 