Ankles, Mental Illness, & Misogyny

In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" and "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", there are a wide variety of similar characters, motifs, and symbols. In all three stories there are numerous mentions of and or examples of Ankles, Mental Illness and Misogyny.

In all three stories ankles are mentioned many times. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Seymour grabs Sybil's ankles twice. He first grabs her ankle, when she talks about how her dad is coming tomorrow on an "nairplane". While doing this she is kicking sand at Seymour. He grabs her ankle to force her to stop. More notably, Seymour grabs Sybil when she is in the inner tube in the water. While in the tube, Seymour grabs her ankles and forces her down into the water to see the banana fish. The banana fish are symbolic of the war, and here by grabbing them he manages to push Sybil down into the realities of what he experienced. In "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut", Eloise scratches her ankles, as a nervous tick or defensive mechanism. When Eloise talks to Mary Jean, about how they both left college to marry soldier's she crosses her legs at the ankles. She closes herself off to further conversation, attempting to prevent any additional discomfort. Ankles are central to the story of Walt, Eloise, and Uncle Wiggly. When Eloise was waiting for Walt at the bus station, she runs to him and twists her ankle. He then tries to sooth her, saying "Poor Uncle Wiggly". Here he refers to her ankle as "Uncle Wiggly". In the same story, when Ramona stays on one side of her side bed, after the death of Jimmy Eloise drags her by her ankles back to the middle of the bed. In this story the ankle almost acts as an Achilles heel, forever tying Eloise and Ramona to their dead lovers. In a way, innocence is lost, both woman forever "attached by the ankle", to their losses. Ankles are also mentioned in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos". When Ginnie talks to Selena's brother about her "snobby" sister, Selena's brother scratches his ankle at the mention of her sister's army fiancee. Selena's brother seems obsessed with her sister, sending her many letters. The ankle here symbolizes, the tie/one-sided love between the two. In addition to ankles symbolizing the tie between individuals, each ankle is also associated with some element of the war. In Bananafish Seymour was in the war, in Uncle Wiggly Walt dies in the war, and in "Just before the War", Ginnie's sister's fiancee is in the war.

Mental Illness, is a common element in all three stories. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Seymour struggles with PTSD from the war. He expresses this through his manifestation of Muriel as Sybil the young girl. He struggles to explain his difficulty coming back from war, instead expressing his reluctance to rejoin society, as a bananafish being to large to escape the whole. He manages to convey his feelings of being trapped in the stress of war as a fish too fat to leave a hole. In "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut", Eloise struggles with the loss of Walt. He died in war and Eloise struggles with her dissatisfaction over her current husband Lew. She is depressed by the lose of Walt, breaking down at the end of the story. She realizes she settled for Lew, saying the only thing she liked about Lew was his supposed love of Jane Austen. Eloise is disgruntled at the fact that she never can have Walt again. Mental Illness is a also present in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos". In this story Ginnie struggles with letting things go. At the end of the story, Ginnie reveals that she kept the Chicken sandwich in her coat pocket, even after almost disposing her. She also talks about the dead chick from Easter, she left in her wastebasket. Ginnie struggles to let go of things, even the mundane. By refusing to not throw out the sandwich and chick she shows traits of Obsessive Compulsive Disease.

Misogyny is a common theme in all of the three stories. Misogyny is defined as the hatred or discrimination of woman. Misogyny is present in all three stories. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Muriel's parents worry about her relationship with Seymour. They are constantly in fear that "he will try something funny", or harm her emotionally. Seymour also calls her "Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948", suggesting he thinks lowly of her values.This theme casts men as antagonists against woman, capable of harming them. In "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut", Lew is seen as a misogynist. He lies to Eloise, about his supposed love of Jane Austen, simply to win her affection. He does not seem to take into account her actual feelings instead trying to find a way to get her to love her. In "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", Selena's brother is also a misogynist. He calls Ginnie's sister the biggest snob, mad at her for not responding to his letters. He conveys her as promiscuous having no time for him. He refuses to listen to Ginnie, instead relying on his feelings about her and woman and general.

Ankles, Mental Illness, and Misogyny are all elements present in all stories.