“A Perfect Day for Bananafish” written by J.D. Salinger, and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence are two short stories which focus around protagonists who have decided that death is the only solution if they cannot reach their own unobtainable goals. The authors of the story, Salinger and Lawrence, share their own views on death through the depictions of the two main character’s actions. The two main characters are affected by women who are physically present but emotionally distant in their lives and represent a world that cares more for itself than the importance of the lives of others. In “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” the protagonist Seymour kills himself after being unable to cope with the indifference of the world around him. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” the protagonist Paul dies trying to earn money by becoming lucky for his mother who symbolizes greed. Seymour and Paul are also influenced by someone special to them that portrays an important yet unobtainable aspect that they desire in their lives. “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” is set in Florida during 1948 and revolves around a day of a vacation that Seymour and his wife are on. Seymour is married to a woman named Muriel who is very self-centered and does not seem to care that her husband is suffering from a severe case of PTSD caused by his recent time fighting in the Second World War. Seymour spends the majority of the story not in the company of his wife, but encouraging an inappropriate infatuation with a young girl named Sybil who is enamored with him. Sybil symbolizes for Seymour the innocence he lost in the war and that he is trying to obtain by associating with young children. Later Seymour is also shown to be very defensive and suspicious of strangers when he accosts a lady on an elevator. He accuses her of staring at his feet, and becomes upset when she denies it, saying “If you want to look at my feet, say so… But don’t be a God-damned sneak about it”(Salinger 17). At the end of the story Seymour ends his own life with a handgun that he is very familiar with. This symbolizes the war which has been hanging over his head and affecting his life, finally finishing him off in his pursuit of a simpler life.
Unlike “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” whose main character is an adult, the second story “A Rocking-Horse Winner” is about a young boy called Paul. After a conversation with his mother about luck and how being lucky is the only way to obtain money, Paul discovers that he can predict which horse will win by riding his toy rocking horse. Throughout the story his mother is constantly looking for more money and is never happy with the amount the family has, symbolizing the greed that many people feel when it comes to worldly goods. Paul learns from the family’s gardener, Bassett, how to bet on races, but he looks up more to his Uncle Oscar saying “…only you gave me that ten-shilling note I started winning with, so I thought you were lucky…”(Lawrence). This shows that Uncle Oscar has become a symbol of luck for Paul, which is what he is striving to become himself. The stress from riding his toy horse to get the winner for the final race eventually kills Paul just as he succeeds in getting the winning name. This shows that his decision to make money by becoming lucky for his mother is more important to him than his own life. Paul continues with his actions and ignores his failing health despite a warning from his mother who states “…I think you care too much about these races. It's a bad sign. My family has been a gambling family, and you won't know till you grow up how much damage it has done. But it has done damage…”(Lawrence).
Symbolism is a very prevalent literary device used within both “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “A Rocking Horse Winner.” Seymour and Paul are both very emotionally scarred characters from events in their lives, and they both have a defining moment when the lives of the two are changed. For Seymour, it was during his time in WWII when the atrocities he saw changed him and stripped his life of the innocence it once held. For Paul it was when he talked to his mother about money and luck then decided that this was what he needed to achieve. The two main characters both have a major character that is keeping them from obtaining what is missing from their life. In Salinger’s work this character is Seymour’s wife who is not concerned with his mental health and decides that her vacation is more important than his wellbeing. However in Lawrence’s work, it is Paul’s mother who is constantly demanding more from him and her greed is forcing him to always have to do more. Seymour and Paul have a major character in their lives that symbolizes the missing aspect that they desire as well. Seymour has Sybil who is a representation of the innocence that he lost during his time in the war, and he spends most of his time with Sybil in an attempt to regain this innocence. For Paul it is his Uncle Oscar who fills this role, being the symbol for luck that Paul wants to be himself. Both characters pass away when they realize that their goal will never be obtainable and they both decide that death is the preferable alternative. Seymour dies by giving in to the war which has been haunting his life and ending his own existence, and Paul continues despite what is happening to his body and warnings about his health.
Seymour and Paul have many opposing forces in their lives, between the life changing events they both experienced, and the people they have in their lives that incorporate the major opposition they must overcome. Both men also have a singular person who embodies that goal that they are trying so hard to achieve. Finally at the end of the two stories, when Seymour and Paul die, they both do so in pursuit of their goals after deciding that death is better than a life without, thus letting the reader make their own assumptions on the authors’ views on the same subject.

Works Cited

Lawrence, D.H. “The Rocking Horse Winner.” Classic Short Stories. Classic Short Stories, n.d.
Web. 8 Oct. 2013.
Salinger, J.D. A Perfect Day for Bananafish. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1981. Print.