Blog Post 2

In class, we had difficulty coming up with much similarity between A Perfect Day for Bananafish and A Perfect Day for Kangaroos. Salinger's story is far more grim with a man who likes children (in a not-so-creepy way), has lost his innocence, and commits suicide. This seems like a strong contrast from Murakami's story which is not so grim. However, key elements show a remarkable similarity: the kangaroo is a baby or child, the discussion of the kangaroo growing up, the girlfriend's concern about whether or not it was a baby, and the girlfriend's comments about the womb. I would argue that in this story, the roles are reversed. The girlfriend parallels Seymour while the boyfriend parallels Seymour's wife, who is just going along with their lover's eccentricities, despite seeing problems with it. Seymour's wife is conscious of problems; the boyfriend notes that the kangaroo had indeed grown up. Yet both play along.

The relation the Murakami story has to death is also the relation it has to innocence. Psychoanalysis in literary criticism or art criticism in general often remarks on the psychic wound of leaving the womb, the end of being a baby, when one is conscious of a difference between itself and mother. The end of innocence so to speak. The little girl in Salinger's story is notedly not with her mother, and the baby kangaroo when first seen is separate from its mother and in all appearances has grown up significantly. Death or suicide can often be seen as a return to an innocent, unknowing state, and so the suicide in Salinger can be seen in the kangaroo's return to its mother's pouch (signifying the womb).