The short story, “A Perfect Day for a Bananafish” by J.D. Salinger, begins by focusing in on Muriel Glass. While Muriel is waiting for a call to her mother to go through, she occupies herself with mundane, superficial tasks. When the call finally goes through, Muriel’s mother expresses the trepidations she has regarding Muriel’s husband, Seymour, who has recently returned from war. Muriel brushes off her mother’s concern, and she seems to be in denial about Seymour’s mental instability. Muriel focuses on materialistic things to avoid confronting reality and her emotions. After being in the war and witnessing so much tragedy, Seymour Glass isolates himself because he is unable to relate to the frivolous, adult world that surrounds him. Following the war, Seymour doesn’t want to be seen. Muriel tells her mother that “all he does is lie there. He won't take his bathrobe off.” He resents being looked at. He spends most of his time alone on the beach or playing the piano while other adults mingle. Throughout the story, Salinger explores Seymour Glass’s disdain for the materialistic and selfish ways of the people around him, especially demonstrated by Muriel. 

At the beginning of the story, Salinger describes “the girl” carrying out many superficial tasks. She paints her nails, cleans her comb, and “read[s] an article in a women's pocket-size magazine, called ‘Sex Is Fun-or Hell’” (Salinger 1). The narrator only refers to Muriel as “she.” The only time “she” is referred to as “Muriel” is by her mother later on in the story. Salinger purposely does not state Muriel’s name at the beginning to establish her as this shallow, static character. It is more impersonal, and makes her less human. The mundane tasks Muriel performs while waiting for the phone also portray her as someone lacking any sort of depth. Muriel is in denial that anything is wrong with her marriage and her husband. She distracts herself with materialism and frivolity.

Seymour and Muriel are perfect foils. Seymour does not want to be seen, but Muriel focuses a lot of time and energy on outward appearances. Muriel gossips with her mother about what other people are wearing. She concentrates on looks and what others think about her and her marriage. On the other hand, Seymour just does not want people looking at him. Muriel tells her mother that Seymour “says he doesn't want a lot of fools looking at his tattoo." Whether or not Seymour actually has a tattoo is unknown; however, it is apparent that he cannot stand being looked at. The literal or figurative tattoo symbolizes the permanent emotional damage Seymour came home from the war with. When on the elevator, Seymour becomes angry when he presumes a woman is looking at his feet. He irritably tells the woman that he has “two normal feet and [he] can't see the slightest God-damned reason why anybody should stare at them” (Salinger 9). He is emotionally unstable from the war, which causes him to overreact to the woman. As his name would imply, Seymour Glass is very transparent, but at the same time he doesn’t want people to see what he is going through because he is ashamed and prideful. Seymour isolates himself from adults and only feels that he can relate to children. Contrarily, Muriel is social with the other hotel guests her age. Because of their immense differences, Seymour and Muriel cannot relate to each other, which makes communication between the two of them nearly impossible. In fact, Seymour and Muriel do not talk to each other during the entirety of the story. 

The only person Seymour seems to be able to relate to is a young girl named Sybil. Seymour feels most comfortable with Sybil because she is an innocent child who he feels hasn’t been corrupted by the vain, excessive society that he is so withdrawn from. He tells Sybil about these imaginary “bananafish.” He explains that “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 …naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again” (Salinger 8) The bananafish are referring to people who are obsessed with materials and consumerism. Seymour believes that swimming into this consumerist hole can cause people to act irrationally. If one leads this consumerist lifestyle, then they can get so caught up in it that they are unable to realize the reality of the world that surrounds them, much like Muriel. He tells Sybil this story in hopes that it will keep her from growing up and living an acquisitive lifestyle.

The way Seymour takes his life speaks volumes about the turmoil he feels towards Muriel and his disdain for phoniness and materialism of the world he is surrounded by. The hotel room Seymour shoots himself in smells of “new calfskin luggage and nail-lacquer remover” (Salinger 9). Salinger includes this imagery to emphasize the frivolity of Muriel’s lifestyle that Seymour abhors. Seymour deliberately kills himself in the room with Muriel as if he is finally shouting that he is not ok. He feels he has to go to extreme lengths to hopefully snap Muriel out of the shallow front she puts up to avoid confronting Seymour’s, as well as her own, emotions.

In “A Perfect Day for a Bananafish,” J.D. Salinger explores Seymour Glass’s disdain of the materialistic society, primarily represented by his wife, that he is surrounded by. Muriel Glass is first painted as a surface-level character; however, it seems that she merely puts up this shallow front to distract from the bigger issues in her life. Seymour and Muriel cannot relate to one another and therefore do not communicate effectively at all. Seymour’s actions throughout the story reiterate the isolation he feels from the consumerist lifestyle that encompasses most of those around him.