           In the story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, Seymour, the man who had just returned from war and his girlfriend, Muriel, went on a vacation. Throughout the story Muriel’s mother was extremely worried about her taking this trip with Seymour because she could tell something was not right about him but Muriel was in denial, she felt that Seymour was fine. She felt this way even though there were plenty of signs that Seymour may be experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, he was not the same man that he was when he left and she knew it but did not want to admit it. His incident with the car crash, when he just dazed off staring at the trees and crashed. How he was extremely insecure about his scar that he had received at war that he called a tattoo, he would not take his robe off at the beach because he did not want anybody to see it, also when he felt that the lady was looking at his feet and got extremely insecure and freaked out on her. Also the incident with the little girl, he could not hold a full conversation even though he was only talking to a young girl, and talked about the banana fish going into their hole and coming out and never being the same. This could be a metaphor for him going into the war and when he came back he just was not the same person as when he left.  It was pretty obvious that this man was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder and at the end of the story it was too much for him to handle and he ended up killing himself in the same room as Muriel while she was sleeping. 

Throughout the story there were many different situations that had occurred that could symbolize what Seymour was going through. The first incident we find out from Muriel’s mother because of how worried she is for her daughter to be going on this trip. She tells us about how Seymour had crashed his car while driving simply because he zoned out staring at the trees along the side of the road. He had lost focus while driving and had most likely began to think about his previous experiences, possibly reliving his time at war which is very common in people that are battling PTSD. Another time that could have symbolized his PTSD and reliving his war experience could have been his insecurity. From what was said before, he was insecure about the scares that he most likely received at war, he may have wanted to hide them because if anybody tried to talk to him about them or bring them up in any way it could have brought back some bad memories. If he was able to keep them covered and keep anybody from seeing them or even himself from seeing them he was able to not think about it at all, with people suffering from this disease when they see, hear, or smell something that could remind them of the bad times it is called a trigger and will cause them to remember and relive what they are trying to forget. 

The most significant symbol that was talked about in the story was when Seymour was talking to the little girl about the banana fish. When he was telling the little girl how the bananafish go into their hole to eat and when they come out they are never the same again, he says that they are stuck in the hole forever. That was most likely him describing to her how he felt, how he went into war and now that he is back he does not feel like the same person who had left, he does not feel as though he has gotten out of the hole that he is stuck there forever. This was the first time he had shared with anybody what he was feeling, although he did not say it directly he was able to describe it in a different way. The only thing was that he was talking to a young child, many experiencing PTSD are not able to communicate with family and other loved ones about how they are feeling which is most likely why Seymour was telling this to a child who could not understand what he was talking about. It was easier for him to talk to a child than an adult.

At the end of the story we find out that Seymour commits suicide, it showed that all of the little things that had occurred during the story were showing signs of PTSD. Just a little before this the incident with the lady in the elevator had occurred, when he thought that she was staring at his feet but really she could have just been looking at the ground, or just in that general direction. He got extremely insecure and freaked out on her. This was the last straw, it seems that after talking to the little girl about how he was feeling, like someone who does not belong, he was so fed up that anything that happened next could put him over the edge. He shot himself in the head in the same room that his girlfriend was sleeping in at the time. 