Such grown-upness, he thought. Raising one of his flaps of peel, he was surprised how naturally came a swish through the water. He felt a cool sensation against the naked upper part of his body. Peeking out between the red coral branches, he saw the sun’s rays dancing on the ocean floor.
He pushed off with his four peel fins, propelling himself out into the open. Just a few days before, he would have to thrust his whole body back and forth in a ridiculous wobble dance just to move a few inches.
Feeling the water pumping through his gills, heart rate increasing, he dashed towards the sun, then dived back down, disappeared into the reef only to emerge again, creating a spin with his peel as he went up.
He basked in his new freedom. His thoughts and reasoning were too slow to catch up to his untiring body and straggled behind as he sliced the water, with no sense of direction.
Only for a moment he froze. Far below, on the ocean floor, he thought he could discern a yellowish spot.
Bananas.
Such a sweet, irresistible smell—he couldn’t really smell underwater, but that’s what he had heard. Such a rich yellow color. Such bananness.
Without further thought, he darted towards the banana hole, flapping his fins faster and faster. He didn’t have a choice. He was drawn in.
In a moment, he was in paradise. All around him was the fruit he had wanted to taste his whole life. Of course, his grandma had fed him with mashed banana baby food, but he knew it wasn’t the same. He torpedoed into one of the banana patches and gorged himself, losing control over his body.
He heard a strange noise, but he did not care. He kept eating. The noise did not go away, but got louder, somewhere right over his head. Suddenly the sunlight was gone.
One-second break, he decided, and glanced around. To his horror, he saw that the sun had been blocked by a dark floating blob. What was worse, however, was the pair of round eyes, the floating yellow hair, and the two appendages splashing through the water, belonging to the creature on top of the blob.
He was horrified. His love for bananas couldn’t compete with his desire to survive. Frantically grabbing as many bananas as he could hold in his mouth—which was seven—he dashed towards the opening of the hole before the creature could trap him inside. Squeezing through the opening, he felt one banana slip out of his mouth but, reluctantly, had to accept the loss when he heard more bubbling overhead. Without looking back, he swam away as fast as his fins would carry him—with his added body weight and six cumbersome bananas in his mouth.
“With her hand, when the float was level again, she wiped away a flat, wet band of hair from her eyes, and reported, ‘I just saw one’” (p.24).
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| "Genetic Engineering's Got Way out of Hand, or Someone's Been on Photoshop." This Blog Rules., 12 Aug. 2009. Web. http://www.thisblogrules.com/2009/08/genetic-engineerings-got-way-out-of.html |
This was cute! I like this depiction and—not to get deep, but—I think it's interesting how the bananafish got away with his six bananas, after the point of Seymour's story was that they always got trapped in the banana holes. I don't know—just an odd point that occurred to me. And with all the other bloggers who have compared Seymour to one of the bananafish in his story, how he "gets trapped" and commits suicide... isn't it curious that Sybil claims to have seen one that "made it" right before his death?
ReplyDeleteThis was an unnecessarily think-y comment on a cute post. Also, that's an impressive Photoshop job.
I was really impressed with the Photoshop work and spent at least ten minutes looking at other pictures of altered fruits.
DeleteThat is an interesting point! I was reading Monica's post after I wrote mine, how bananafish likely represent soldiers, but I somehow didn't think of Seymore as a bananafish. Maybe Seymore was happy to imagine himself getting away like the fish did--and that's maybe why he kissed Sybil's foot, as a thank-you for helping me see this possible--or maybe the six bananas the fish carried reminded him of the endless burdens in his mind and in his life and drove him towards suicide... ooh no, too dark.
Seymour maybe seems to identify in part with the Bananafish in his story, but it seems clear to me that they represent overindulgence, or materialism and self-gratification run amok. From what we see of Seymour, he doesn't seem to be overindulging (skinny, pale, keeping to himself, walking around in his robe in this high-fashion environment). But he does seem really alienated from everyone around him who is overindulging--he maybe sees a "tragic" turn in American culture following the war, a scene he no longer feels he can be a part of.
DeleteI really like this, Anna! It's a unique blog post and unlike anything else I've seen yet. I'm glad this bananafish didn't meet its usual tragic demise! And the photoshop picture is a very nice touch! :)
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed this post, Anna. Since we don't really experience bananafish in our lives, it's nice that you've given life to a fictional, seemingly one dimensional, figure in Salinger's story. I find myself able to try and understand Salinger's significance of using bananafish, as opposed to any other kind of fish, by relating it back to Seymour's character. I also thought the photoshoped picture was a nice touch. (In fact, I spent like 5 more minutes looking at the other pictures on the blogpost you linked. They kind of mess with your mind a bit).
ReplyDeleteI really like this post, Anna! The photoshopped picture is great. :) It's interesting that this bananafish manages to barely escape from the hole. In Salinger's story, I thought that Sybil claims to see a bananafish because she is too innocent and optimistic to believe that they all die.
ReplyDelete