Alison Post 2

Our discussion of the possible pedophilia in A Perfect Day for Bananafish has made me consider the consequences of viewing actions in novels set in the past only in the way that they would have been perceived then. More widely, I have wondered whether it is fair to judge a work based on today's values, or if content should be appreciated in the manner it would have been at the time of its conception.

The interactions between Seymour Glass and the little girl in Bananafish are a fine example. At the time this work was written, all of the actions likely seemed rather benign to a reader. Seymour was entertaining this girl, neglected by her mother, and enjoying the youthful energy around him. He was gentle with her, but engaged her, and made sure she stayed safe. Because nothing inappropriate happened in the end, there was nothing to worry about in that regard, and his suicide was likely caused by his PTSD.

However, as someone fairly well-versed in present-day social justice issues and groups prone to victimization (children included), and steeps herself in the world of true and fictional crime, I perhaps come with a biased view. To me, the behaviors in this work appeared as such: A very young girl comes to play with man, who she seems to have some familiarity with.  He shows signs of keeping tabs on the whereabouts of her parents, talks to her about what she is wearing, deflects the conversation from himself and things related to him, and entices her to come even closer to him. He continues to comment on her appearance, maintains physical points of contact, and tries to get her to tell him things about herself. When she feels insecure about the appearance of another young girl in his life, he tells her things to make her feel special, but also simultaneously jealous of this other girl - for instance by asking her directly where she lives and saying this other, younger girl knew where she lived. He still maintains a point of contact, like a hand-hold. He even addresses her as "my love" and kisses her foot. He immediately ends the ocean adventure upon the kiss, however, returns inside, and becomes very self-conscious about the topic of feet. Then he commits suicide. In this interpretation of the narrative, I get the feeling that he is struggling with the idea of himself as a pedophile, can't stand it, and ends it instead of allowing it to actually hurt someone.

But who knows, maybe I'm reading too much into this and viewing it through the lens of today's understanding of the prevalence of child abuse. You can spin interpretations of stories in any number of ways - and this doesn't seem to be a theme in Murakami's Kangaroos. But it also begs the question, if the kind of behavior we see in Bananafish was considered normal, was that because it actually was, or because the people of the time didn't look for danger in the same way we do now? Have times really changed since then, or has our society just opened our eyes to what was always there?