How a child's spontaneity is demonstrated in J.D Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut".

Essay by Jackass5206High School, 12th gradeA+, September 2005

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Children have a wisdom and a spontaneity that is lost in the distraction and temptation of adult life. When in one's adolescent years, he or she is unaware of the troubles, struggles as well other negative perspectives that one might experience throughout his or her life. In a child's perspective, life is exciting and exempt from all evils. Children are learning something new everyday while questioning everything they see. Children have the ability to believe whatever they want, in addition to create all sorts of ideas in their head. Sybil Carpenter in J.D Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" as well as Ramona in his story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" are both examples of children of this innocence. Sybil is innocent in the sense that she has the imagination to believe what she hears and picture things that aren't really there. Ramona as well has an imagination of her own in the fact that she was able to create an imaginary friend in her life whom she believes to be real and have humanistic qualities.

Children perceive things in a much more simplistic way than adults, which allows them to be children of innocence.

In J.D. Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Sybil Carpenter portrays a child around the age of four on vacation at a beach in Florida. Sybil is an ideal example of what childhood innocence is like. Sybil is a very bright young girl, yet she lets her mind and imagination expand past the borders of reality. When Sybil's mother begins to ignore her and goes to the Martini bar, Sybil decides to take a walk around the hotel and onto the beach and explore.

Sybil is the kind of child that when told the grass is blue, she would respond,