Comparisons Between "Bananafish" and "Esme".

"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esme with Love and Squalor" are both dynamic stories, yet have opposite moods.  "Bananafish" is written in third person and set at an American beach resort, which is ironic considering its macabre events.  "Esme" is written in first person and takes place on a dreary afternoon in Devon England after D-Day, and at a solier's quarters in Gaufurt Bavaria.  The ending is hopeful.  A man who has some sort of psychological disorder from the war believes that he may someday become a man "with all his faculties intact" after receiving a gift from Esme and then suddenly feeling sleepy.  Aside from the endings, the plots are somewhat similar; they both involve an interaction between a grown man and a young girl, and in both instances, the girl approaches the man.  In "Bananafish", Seymore Glass spends time in the ocean with young Sybil (about 5 years old) and tells her the morbid bananafish story, after which he shoots himself.  In "Esme", the nameless narrator meets thirteen-year-old Esme and her brother Charles in a tea shop, and they talk for half an hour.  Esme requests that the narrator write her a story about some sort of squalor.  Both girls feet are mentioned.  In "Bananafish", Seymore kisses Sybil's feet and in "Esme", the narrator remarks how good Esme's socks and ankles look.  The main character in both stories mistakes the color of something.  In "Bananafish", the main character believes that Sybil's bathing suit is blue when its really yellow, and in "Esme", the narrator thinks that Charle's eyes are green when he insists that they are orange.  The main character is married in both stories.  However, in "Bananafish", Seymore's wife, Muriel, plays a larger role in the story.  The reader overhears the phone conversation between her and her mother, which mostly consists of inane banter about superficial topics, such as the current fashions.  In "Esme", we don't know the wife's name, or much else about her other than she is a "level-headed girl", and that her brief letter to the narrator is about as glib as Muriel's phone conversation; she requests that the narrator send her some yarn.  While each story has its own particular nuances, both stories have unmistakable similarities.