"A Perfect Day for Bananafish," "Uncle Wiggily in CT," and "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" all have similarities. One similarity is the theme of growing up/losing one's innocence. In APDFB, Seymour doesn't seem to be able to handle the idea of Sybil growing up and losing her innocence. When Sybil claimed to have found a bananafish, he was upset because in his eyes, that meant she lost some of her innocence and was growing up. In UWIC, Ramona had an imaginary friend named Jimmy who got ran over and killed. She tried replacing Jimmy with Mickey, but Eloise got angry and made her get rid of Mickey by telling her to sleep in the center of the bed. This represented Eloise making Ramona grow up and become more mature. In JBTWWE, Ginnie was angry at Selena for never paying the cab fare. She kept on bothering Selena to give her the money back. At the end of the story, Ginnie decided to grow up/become more mature and told Selena that she didn't have to pay her back.
Another similarity is the effect of the war on the characters in the stories. In APDFB, Seymour used to be in the army for World War II. Most likely, he suffered PTSD, which factored in him shooting himself at the end of the story. Also, in UWIC, Eloise lost her husband Walt because of a bomb explosion in the war. So, her loss and grief made her angry and emotional. She then took out her anger on Ramona by making her get rid of her imaginary friend. In JBTWWE, Franklin mentioned how they were going to go to war with the Eskimos next and they were recruiting all the older men to fight. Ginnie tries to reassure him by telling him he wouldn't have to go fight. However, she knows that that was the wrong thing to say because the war with the Eskimos would affect all of them even if they didn't have to fight in it.
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