While listening to the song I found a few physical similarities that help the song relate to the book better. First, I think "all this yellow I'm seeing" in the song relates to Seymour and his first signs of illness. Not knowing the color is the first hint that he is not 100% okay in the book, and I think he tries to cover up his misreading of simple colors. In the song, talking about the yellow can relate to the bathing suit and also the yellow color of bananas or Bananafish.
Next, in the song saying "she'll be alright like she always is, she'll go and buy herself a brand dress" reminds me of how Muriel tells her mom she's fine over and over on the phone, and how she was so materialistic at the beginning of the book with her Saks blouse and nail polish.
Lastly, in the song saying, "that piano its the angels calling me home" warns us of Seymour's death in the book. Muriel tells her mom, "He's played the piano both nights we've been here" (Salinger 10). The angels are calling him home to heaven which foreshadows his death in the book.
Do you guys agree with these points?
-Shira
I agree with all of your points and I also think that the phrase "she'll be alright like she always is, she'll go buy herself a brand new dress" relates to the context of the conversation between Muriel and her Mom. As Muriel's mom probes into Seymour's problems, they will throw in a comment or question about clothing or other superficial distractions to lighten the conversation. For example, when Meredith's mother is asking her about the psychiatrist at the hotel, Meredith diverts the conversation to the "awful dinner dress" his wife was wearing. Seymour also mentions Meredith's materialistic nature when he tells Sybil that "the lady" may be in "any one of a thousand places. At the hairdresser's. Having her hair dyed mink." It seems as if Meredith's focusing on the superficial is her way to cope with her husband's illness.
ReplyDelete-Becca
Exactly, like I said above telling her mom she is always fine is obviously a coverup for her actual feeling...I like your points about escaping Seymour's illness through superficiality.
ReplyDelete-shira
I agree with both of you, and that he wasn't 100% sane. In the book he talks about how both of he feet are perfectly normal and gets defensive, when the lady was just staring at the ground. This shows he insecure and how he knows other people think he's strange. Also in the song it says "everyone thinks I'm crazy". Also the tone of the song is unclear, depressing and almost boring. And in the book until the last page it's an unclear boring conversation between a mother and daughter, and a uneventful swim in the ocean with a young man and a girl.
ReplyDelete-Greg
I liked your ideas about Muriel's materialism! She is very superficial.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that Seymour is only joking about the color of her bathing suit? This is kind of weird, but I used to have a babysitting book and pretending something was one color when it was another was an activity to play with young children.
-Luisa
That's an idea too, I just took it as foreshadowing to his illness. He could just be great with kids.
ReplyDelete