In class, we have come to read, the short story “Bananafish” by J.D. Salinger, and I really enjoyed everything about the short story. In it, I got a glimpse of a society that was once incognizant of the perilous mental disorder known as PTSD. Salinger doesn’t even show the darkness of the disorder until the end of the story where the protagonist shoots himself in the head to liberate himself of his treacherous past in the army. In this story, we see how blind our society was back then and is now…how those around us who may care for us don’t even pick up or realize the darkness within us. Salinger, however, does portray the antidote to a person’s mental illness–it is quite simple yet difficult to find. This “antidote” or “savior” would be a person, that can share with you the beauties of life, in their purest of ways…they are with you every step of the way through your struggle. Just one person is enough to be someone’s bright place. A single person can thrust you forth into the world of light and force you to exit the pitiful existence in the darkness.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.