The relationships in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” show us what the lack of communication can lead to. There are many relationships in the story including Muriel and Seymour, Muriel and her mother, and, Seymour and Sybil. The many relationships in this story are all very different yet each and every one of them lacks some sort of communication. Wether it be physical communication or the real meaning behind the words that are being spoken. There is no verbal communication between Seymour and Muriel and while there is verbal communication between Seymour and Sybil, Seymour cannot communicate what he is really feeling or thinking to Sybil. Salinger uses different ways to express the lack of communication and how it is effecting everyone in the story. Salinger shows how these characters try to communicate through detailed dialogue with each other but each effort fails and that 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 through the dialogue between Muriel and her mother. Her mother repeatedly asks her if she is okay. She is worried about her. Her mother asks, “"Did he try any of that funny business with the trees? (3). Salinger doesn't come out and say what this funny business is but we can tell that he is trying to communicate that something is wrong with Seymour. Muriel keeps saying she is fine but we can see she isn’t communicating 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.  Salinger shows us this through the many questions Muriel’s mother continues to ask and how Muriel disregards her questions.

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. Salinger shows us that Muriel and Seymour do not communicate well through this conversation. 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). Salinger 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.  Salinger shows us that Seymour is battling PST by using a metaphor like bananafish. Since he can’t communicate this with even his wife, he has to use Sybil to let out what he is feeling.  Salinger shows us that as he keeps on talking to Sybil and the way he responds to her, Seymour is unstable and 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 clear 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). Salinger uses this last scene to show us what the lack of communication throughout the story lead to. 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. Salinger is showing us 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. Salinger showed us that lack of communication never leads to something good through the intricate dialogue between the characters. He showed us how Muriels mother tried to communicate with Muriel but that failed. He showed us how Seymour tried to communicate with Sybil but it did not satisfy him. And he showed us how finally, Seymour communicated his thoughts to Muriel through suicide. Communication is a key part of life and it affects any situation. 