Voice in the Narrative
This is an excerpt from the paper...
In The Dialogic Imagination, Mikhail Bakhtin (p. 255) argues that the writer ôdoes his observing from his own unresolved and still evolving contemporaneity, in all its complexity and fullness.ö In the story ôA Perfect Day for Bananafish,ö J. D. Salinger provides us with the narrative of Seymour Glass, his unfulfilling marriage, and his suicide. In doing so, we see that SalingerÆs contemporaneity is still unresolved and evolving through a number of narrative techniques. Seymour Glass is sick of the phony people and values he finds all around him. A poet at heart, Glass views most people as greedy, selfish, and proud. He likens them to a mythical creature he shares the story of with a young girl he befriends, Sybil. The ôbananafish,ö Glass tells her ôlead a very tragic life. They swim into a hole where thereÆs a lot of bananas. TheyÆre very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs,ö (Salinger, p. 23). Through his narrative technique, Salinger illustrates his own evolving and unresolved contemporaneity through the characterization and construction of Seymour Glass. Seymour Benjamin Chatman has defined three types of narrative discourse: 1) narrative; 2) descriptive; and 3) argument, (Fludernik, p. 277). All of these elements are illustrated in the narrative discourse provided by Salinger in ôA Perfect Day for Bananafish.ö Seymour Glass provides us with a recital or the relation of
. . .
the events in the story as he views them, such as his approval of SybilÆs diet which he believes most of the world should adopt, ôOlives and wax. I never go anyplace without æem,ö (Salinger, p. 21).
Perhaps, in reference to BakhtinÆs views on the unresolved and still evolving contemporaneity of writers, SalingerÆs own struggles whth this issue embody conflicting feelings, perceptions, and evaluations. Perhaps the authorÆs narrative is evidence that he contemplated suicide in the midst of what he found a materialistic and shallow society but knew committing suicide would, indeed, represent losing complete control. We see his character, Seymour, is a poet at heart in a world where people never forget to bring their tanning lotion at the expense of packing poetry to read. If Bakhtin is correct and writers engage in an ongoing struggle with evaluation of contemporaneity, then SalingerÆs Seymour Glass seems to resolve the struggle in a way the author is not so sure is correct or even a method of resolution for what ails Seymour or his society. If SeymourÆs death is a rejection of the full cup held out to him in contemporary society it is also a rejection of life. Seymour is released primarily from himself, a self he can no lon
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Seymour Glass, Day Bananafishö, Peer Chatman, Salinger MurielÆs, Spiritual Tramp, Chatman Fludernik, Bananafishö Mother, According BoothÆs, Benjamin Chatman, Salinger Salinger, seymour glass, ôa perfect, ôa perfect day, perfect day bananafishö, perfect day, day bananafishö, narrative discourse, unresolved evolving, complete control, leave unfulfilled spiritually, views unresolved, unresolved evolving contemporaneity, historical self-reflection, narrative communication, narrative ôa perfect,
Approximate Word count = 2580
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
