Salinger's Critique of Materialism
In several of the stories from Nine Stories , J. D. Salinger seems to be critiquing the materialistic nature of people in upper-class society, especially in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut.” In each of these stories, Salinger also includes a character, usually a child, who is more innocent and doesn’t care about material wealth. In “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Muriel is the epitome of an upper-class, privileged woman. She is overly concerned about her appearance (as can be seen by details such as her Saks blouse and her painting her nails) and takes her time answering the phone even though she has been waiting for two hours. Throughout the story, she is portrayed in a negative light. First, in the phone call with her mother, Muriel seems too concerned with superficial gossip to realize that something is wrong with her husband. Her mother brings up some serious incidents that have occured, and even though we as readers don’t get