The Characters in The Catcher in the Rye and "A Perfect Day for a Bananafish"

The Catcher in the Rye and "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" are both stories written by J. D. Salinger.  The first one is a novel and the other is a short story.  There are many comparisons that can be made between the characters in these stories.

First, as you read these stories, the main characters both seem to really relate to each other. One way that Holden from The Catcher in the Rye and Seymour from "A Perfect Day for a Bananafish" relate to each other is that they both seem to enjoy being around children more than others.  Holden himself always seemed to feel better when he was around children like his sister, Phoebe, and the kids he met by the museum.  Seymour seemed to be happy when around Sybil, who was a little kid.  Also, all throughout the story Seymour is trying to get away from adults.  For instance, during Bingo he went off alone into another room and played the piano.  Salinger actually relates to this too, because he has said that some of his best friends are children.  They all would rather be with children, who are more real than most adults.  Another thing that Holden and Seymour have in common is that they both felt alienated and alone.  Seymour felt this way because after he was let out of the hospital after a war, he probably wasn't the most stable, but his wife didn't seem at all concerned about him.  As for Holden, he felt like he never really fit in, and was having trouble finding his identity, especially since he had just gotten kicked out of school.  Both characters were also depressed at times.  There were many times throughout the book that Holden said he felt depressed, but he ended up getting through it.  On the other hand, Seymour can be seen as probably very messed up and depressed, because at the end of the story he ended up killing himself.  

Other characters that relate in these stories would be the hot-shots and phonies that Holden talks about, such as Stradlater, and Seymour's wife Muriel.  Muriel seems to be somewhat of a phony, and she doesn't seem to care that much about Seymour.  She is a materialistic woman who is surrounded by luxuries and riches.  In the story she is wearing a silk gown and is said to have fancy leather luggage.  She can't really relate to Seymour, just like the hot-shots can't relate much to Holden.

It is pretty easy to notice how similar these characters really are.  Both of these stories were very interesting.