ol of himself,ö (Salinger, p. 9).
We also see the use of descriptive narration that provides us with a picture of the scene in which Seymour exists. Seymour describes Americans as overexposed to hedonism and self-interested behavior. He yearns for a culture that cultivates appreciation for music, poetry, and literature. His mythical bananafish story is evidence of his need for creative interpretation of the events he experiences daily that leave him unfulfilled spiritually. In the descriptive narrative used by Salinger to tell the bananafish story, Seymour is also describing the setting in which and individuals with whom he interacts, ôTheyÆre so fat they canÆt get out of the hole again,ö and they die of banana fever, a ôterrible diseaseö that comes from their inability to control their craving and desire, (Salinger, p. 23).
There is also argumentative narration used by Salinger in ôA Perfect Day for Bananafish.ö We see this when the Mother continues to evaluate everything around her. She is worried Seymour may lose complete control, she thinks poems that need translated are just ôawful,ö and she evaluates any behavior apart from the norm as worrisome. As she tells her daughter of Seymour, ôCall me the instant he does, or says, anything at all funnyùyou know what I mean,ö (Salinger, p. 14). Ironically, the Mother is typically wrong in most of her evaluations or arguments over things, but in the case of Seymour she is right. Possibly because of his still evolving and unresolved contemporaneity, Salinger may be providing us in Seymour Glass with what Wayne Booth labeled the ôunreliable narrator,ö (Olson, p. 93).
Therefore, we can see that Salinger uses three distinct forms of narrative discourse comparable to those defined by Chatman. As Fludernik (p. 277) explains, ôThese three categories quite obviously reflect on elements observable in narrative discourse: the narratorÆs diegetic narration clear...