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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Motifs
Explanation and Analysis—Sunlight and Skin:
A motif present in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is the constant recurrence of sunlight and skin. Muriel mentions being sunburned to her mother:
"I couldn't travel now anyway. I'm so sunburned I can hardly move."
"You're badly sunburned? Didn't you use that jar of Bronze I put in your bag? I put it right--"
"I used it. I'm burned anyway."
"That's terrible. Where are you burned?"
"All over, dear, all over."
"That's terrible."
"I'll live."
Being sunburned is, to Muriel, the sign of a vacation well spent. Seymour, on the other hand, is so pale that Muriel supposes his pallor is the reason the psychiatrist at the hotel thinks he's sick. She also guesses that he refuses to remove his bathrobe because he's pale. Muriel's mother is equally aghast to hear that Seymour is not getting enough sun; she says that he "needs" the sun to recover. Muriel's mother is overreacting to Muriel's sunburns and ignorant to what is actually wrong with Seymour, but this conversation still suggests that Muriel has an excess of something Seymour lacks, or vice versa. Muriel is over-exposed, whereas Seymour is hiding. The motif of sunlight thus emphasizes the extent to which the two supposed lovers are different from each other.
Sybil Carpenter, for her part, is introduced as her mother applies suntan oil. As a healthy child, Sybil is expected to play in the sun; at the same time, the sun poses a threat that necessitates protection. This slope between healthy fun and danger applies to Sybil's interactions with Seymour. Sybil clearly has a good time playing. At the same time, Seymour's attention towards her is potentially harmful or corrupting.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Feet:
Throughout "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," attention is drawn repeatedly to feet. First, Sybil uses her bare feet to destroy a sandcastle on the beach. Later, Seymour repeatedly grabs at Sybil's ankles and holds them in his hands, an uncomfortable physical intimacy between a strange adult and a child. Most disturbingly, after Sybil claims to see a bananafish, Seymour kisses her foot:
The young man suddenly picked up one of Sybil’s wet feet, which were drooping over the end of the float, and kissed the arch.
“Hey!” said the owner of the foot, turning around.
Sybil is amused and annoyed but ignorant of any connotations of the gesture. Seymour, on the other hand, seems to understand there is something strange in his preoccupation when he returns to the hotel completely barefoot. On the elevator, he accuses a woman of staring at his feet:
“I said I see you’re looking at my feet.”
“I beg your pardon. I happened to be looking at the floor,” said the woman, and faced the doors of the car.
“If you want to look at my feet, say so,” said the young man. “But don’t be a God-damned sneak about it.”
“Let me out here, please,” the woman said quickly to the girl operating the car.
The car doors opened and the woman got out without looking back.
“I have two normal feet and I can’t see the slightest God-damned reason why anybody should stare at them,” said the young man.
This interaction suggests that Seymour is aware of feet as particularly intimate. It also suggests that he is strangely insecure that his feet are not, in fact, normal. Therefore, feet might be a marker of innocence or guilt in Seymour's mind. The innocence that Seymour covets in Sibyl manifests somehow in her feet, and he comes to fear that his own shortcomings are somehow visible in his feet.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Sight:
One motif in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” is sight. First, two of the characters’ names are highly symbolic. Seymour Glass’s first name sounds like the words “see more,” and his surname is a material known for transparency. When readers meet Sybil, she is repeating Seymour’s name to her mother over and over as if it were a phrase:
"See more glass," said Sybil Carpenter, who was staying at the hotel with her mother. "Did you see more glass?"
Sybil’s name is also a reference to sight: Sybil is derived from the Greek word for a female prophet capable of seeing into the future. Seymour and Sybil are thus linked together by their apparent capacity for clarity of vision. Seymour is aware of the connotations of Sybil’s name:
“Ah, Sharon Lipschutz,” said the young man. “How that name comes up. Mixing memory and desire.”
Although he refers to Sharon Lipschutz’s name, “Mixing memory and desire” is a quote from "The Wasteland" by T. S. Eliot. The poem begins with an epigraph from a Latin text talking about a sibyl. Possibly, Seymour feels kinship with Sybil because of this link. However, his desire for similarity between himself and the child disrupts his ability to see clearly: Seymour mistakes Sybil's yellow swimsuit for blue, like his own.
When they go into the water, Sybil and Seymour go looking for bananafish, an elusive underwater creature which Seymour has just invented. Sybil claims to have seen a bananafish carrying six bananas. Sybil and Seymour are able to share a fantasy, "seeing" what they have really just imagined. At the same time, the bananafish are no more trivial than Muriel's supposedly more sensible and real world of fashion and bingo. Instead, they seem to represent a terrible, senseless gluttony lurking beneath the surface of the world. Thus, sight in the story is not just literal sight or even the truth—rather, the motif is somewhat ambiguous, but the creeping violence of the childish bananafish fantasy seems linked to Seymour's sudden fear of the woman in the elevator looking at his feet. He initially wants to see with Sybil, but maybe, in the end, his sight is corrupting or simply unlivable.
Related Themes:
