In JD Salinger’s short story, A Perfect Day for a Banana Fish there are many messages and themes hidden under the text for the reader to interpret. One important theme that plays a crucial role throughout the short story is communication. There are many scenes where communication, as well as the lack of it play such a large role in explaining the poor, and weakening relationship between all of the characters. It also explains the mental undoing of Seymour Glass an upper middle class world war II veteran and His wife Muriel who is in  denial or is completely oblivious to the entire scenario. This theme of communication is visible in all scenes of the Short story such as when Muriel Is talking to her mother where she deflects her concerns about her and her husband’s safety do to his mental unrest, or when Seymour is Talking to the little girl Sybil on the beach, with his intriguing story of the Banana Fish. All of this leads to the ultimate act of Seymour trying to communicate to his wife Muriel by committing suicide in the chair right next her while she was napping in the room. These displays of Communication play an important role in getting across the underlying message Salinger is trying to get across to the reader that leads to the ultimate ending of Seymour’s life.

In the first scene Salinger uses the lack of communication to show the lack of relationship between Muriel and her mother as well as the denial Muriel has about her Husband’s mental illness. This conversation is very odd as Muriel deflects or hardly responds to her mother’s many concerns and questions. One such example can be seen the remarks "Well. In the first place, he said it was a perfect crime the Army released him from the hospital--my word of honor. He very definitely told your father there's a chance--a very great chance, he said--that Seymour may completely lose control of himself. My word of honor." "There's a psychiatrist here at the hotel," said the girl. "Who? What's his name?" "I don't know. Rieser or something. He's supposed to be very good."(Salinger pg.4). In this exchange Muriel completely believes that her husband will be completely fine when in reality he is not. It’s sort of ironic that Muriel uses this as an example that her husband is trully doing ok and is talking to a psychiatrist when in reality she knows nothing about psychiatrist barely even knows his name. Another way communication is used in is how Seymour gives Muriel a book of poems to demonstrate his feeling about the war. This act is Seymour’s way of him telling his wife how beautiful German art is and how wrong it was to kill Germans and how wrong war is. Salinger also uses communication in this conversation to allude to a foreshadow of the ending during the exchange "I said he drove very nicely, Mother. Now, please. I asked him to stay close to the white line, and all, and he knew what I meant, and he did. He was even trying not to look at the trees-you could tell. Did Daddy get the car fixed, incidentally?" "Not yet. They want four hundred dollars, just to--" "Mother, Seymour told Daddy that he'd pay for it. There's no reason for--"(Salinger pg.3). This conversation foreshadows the ending displaying that Seymour has already had a history of self-harm, and mental illness. The communication between Muriel and her mother truly gives the reader insight on the true denial that Muriel has with the state of her husband and how she does not want to believe that he is unwell. 

Communication also plays a crucial role in the scene where Sybil and Seymour are talking on the beach. The conversation between these two is incredibly odd and childlike in many senses. The lines "That's a fine bathing suit you have on. If there's one thing I like, it's a blue bathing suit." Sybil stared at him, then looked down at her protruding stomach. "This is a yellow," she said. "This is a yellow."(Salinger pg.6). Displays how weird the communication between these two really is. Their something very childlike in Seymour as he sees the innocence in children even stating "Yes. Yes, I do," said the young man. "What I like particularly about her is that she never does anything mean to little dogs in the lobby of the hotel. That little toy bull that belongs to that lady from Canada, for instance. You probably won't believe this, but some little girls like to poke that little dog with balloon sticks. Sharon doesn't. She's never mean or unkind. That's why I like her so much." The war took such a toll on him psychologically Salinger uses this conversation between Seymour and this child as a way to demonstrate to the reader how much he has gone through during the war and how he wishes he could go back to a child-like innocence. The final part of their conversation was a story about the banana fish a fictional animal which he states “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." He edged the float and its passenger a foot closer to the horizon. "Naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again. Can't fit through the door."(Salinger pg.8). Seymour uses this to communicate his feeling about the greediness of war and the terrible things he saw during it. Salinger really uses this scene to really show how Seymour uses this conversation to communicate how vulnerable he is and how much he is struggling with his post-traumatic stress disorder.

The final scene Salinger leaves very short and incredibly powerful. It starts where Seymour has his final break in the elevator where Seymour has a mental breakdown over the lady starring at his feet. Seymour’s full name is Seymour Glass which is very descriptive of his Personality and his wish to remain invisible. It is seen very clearly here as well as his final call for help before his final act of communication the biggest really which is suicide. He does this next to his wife who was in great denial of the whole situation. Her husband was completely unwell and she failed to believe this. Salinger uses this as the ultimate ending to his story as a way to drive the ultimate point home that there truly was no communication between these two and last way of communicating was to commit suicide while staring at his wife.

In J.D. Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for a Banana Fish” Communication is a key theme displayed throughout the story as Salinger uses obscure conversation to truly display the underlying feelings of the individual character. It is prominently through many scenes the most important being the last scene where Seymour commits the ultimate act of communication to his wife and others.   


 