Character Analysis: A Perfect Day For A Bananafish

I was never a fan of children. I was never the girl to babysit all of the kids on my block. I was never the girl to spark up a conversation with a little girl or boy. I’m the younger sibling and I have no younger family members; I was the baby of the family, so I never dealt with children growing up. I never know what to say when I’m talking to children because they do not understand the world the same way I do. Up until now, I never thought of that reason. Seymour, a character from A Perfect Day for a Bananafish, is in a similar situation after returning from war with a severe case of PTSD. He talks to the children because they do not understand all of the tragedies of the world. As a result of this, Seymour has an easier time communicating
When strangers are looking at him in strange ways, or not looking at him at all, he feels very paranoid that they know. He is paranoid that they might know that he shot someone, he watched his friend die, or something along those lines overseas fighting in the war. Adults in general can relate and empathize, or misinterpreted his pain causing them to look down on Seymour because of what he went through and how it affects him now. On the contrary, children do not do this. All children are filled with a sense of innocence that is not present in any adult. They treat every new adult the same. The children do not know that he has PTSD or anything wrong with him; children treat Seymour like any other adult because they do not know how to act any other
For instance, he keeps screaming at people to stop staring at his tattoo, when in reality he has no tattoo and nobody was staring at him. In a similar instance at the end of the story, Seymour is waiting in the elevator to return to his hotel room after playing in the ocean, and he yells at a lady for looking at his feet. Explaining himself, he goes on to say how he has two completely normal feet; there is no reason why the lady should be looking at them. The reader can easily infer that the lady was not in fact looking at his feet. Seymour feels quite paranoid by all these adults looking at him and looking at his ‘tragedy’ in a sense. Seymour has trouble relating and communicating with adults after returning from the war, so instead of confiding in his wife or a friend, he decides to play with a young girl named Sybil. After enduring so much trouble and trauma in the past, he wants to be a child again. By talking with Sybil, who was a stranger, and making up childish stories about a fish that eats bananas, it helps him escape the harsh realities and pressures of the ‘adult’ world. Sybil does not judge Seymour so it allows him to feel like a new person who is not a burdened with the aftermath of