AP Senior English
Mr. Flood
May 2, 2006
Sr. Term Paper Handout #3: How do I start to figure out what I am actually writing
about?
Here is my research statement:
I am going to write about “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger. This story is one
of the selections in Nine Stories. The main character, Seymour Glass, has just returned from
fighting in WWII, and he and his wife, Muriel, are on vacation in Miami, Florida. Seymour
winds up committing suicide at the end of the story—in the final paragraph!—and it’s very
shocking to read about. I want to find out what causes his suicide—his war experiences? His
relationship with Muriel? Something else?
I will probably focus a lot on the Muriel-Seymour relationship because Salinger spends so
much time creating a picture of Muriel’s character, maybe even more time than he spends on
developing Seymour. She’s an interesting girl; she seems totally self-centered, yet she has some
kind of relationship with Seymour.
Then there is also the other significant relationship in the story, and that involves Seymour
and Sybil Carpenter, a little girl he has befriended at the hotel. There is the famous “bananafish”
story that Seymour tells Sybil when they are on the beach, minutes before he goes back to his
hotel room to kill himself. This relationship and the story are both very interesting and provide
clues to the reasons behind Seymour’s suicide.
Those are my ideas so far, now I need to think further about WHAT I ACTUALLY WANT TO
SAY in this paper. So, I will spend a few minutes brainstorming:
Turn to the other side, please
I want to write about Seymour Glass, esp. focusing on the following questions:
 Why did he marry Muriel? Can I find out more about where they met, or how, or
anything about their relationship?
 Some critics seem to think it’s her fault that he kills himself—I don’t agree. That’s too
much blame for one person. I think I will talk about this a lot.
 Maybe I can find out more about the Glass family and what S.’s role was in that family.
 I also want to analyze his relationship with Sybil Carpenter in the story.
 I also want to find out what his war experiences were like.
I don’t think I want to just limit this paper to talking about Muriel & Seymour—I don’t think
there’s enough to say, and it would be boring anyway. But I also can’t just write about Muriel
and Seymour.
I need to organize these ideas too—in a way that makes sense—because I am not just talking
about relationships, I am also taking about the effects the war had, etc. I will worry about the
organization later—after I’ve started my research and I know more definitely what I want to say
in the paper.
When I look back over this, it seems like I am mostly interested in the Muriel-Seymour
connection. That can be my main starting place—that and why he killed himself.
Now that I have some original, preliminary thoughts down on paper, I can begin researching the
story.