UPDATE! oh, you've been waiting for this?

Believe me: at 7:00 PM on the last day of school, the very last place I wanted to be was here in Room 305 finishing up the final exam stuff for you.  But I am.  So here it (finally--no pun intended) is.

If you are a junior you can find everything you will need in the document located here.

If you are a sophomore then the link from yesterday will get you to "A Perfect Day For Bananafish."  After that, the first essay topic is as follows:

In this story, we learn of a man named Seymour Glass, a veteran of the war who has been injured and has witnessed a lot of death and destruction.  It becomes clear through conversations between his wife, Muriel, and her mother, that Seymour has been in and out of therapy and possibly an asylum.  He is most definitely not well, though it appears that at this moment he is holding things together.  Seymour tells a small child named Sybil a concocted tale about a "bananafish," a creature that, once it gets the thing it has hunted for, gorges itself so much that it cannot purge any of the things it has eaten and, therefore, dies.  Seymour is, metaphorically, a bananafish, as the story seems to suggest, and apparently he has had his fill.

Your question is this:

To what extent can we say that Holden Caulfield is a bananafish?


Support your opinion with references and quotations from the text in a well-developed, carefully argued essay.  The essay should be 2-3 pages long and analytical in nature, not research based.  Refrain from seeking any additional information about the short story.  I have read and intend to reread everything that can be found online about it.  Although you might get away with stealing ideas and or words, the odds are against you and it is not worth it.

Email your essay to me, or bring it to the exam.

Both classes:  Use this link to get to the class evaluations.  Take your time and fill them out thoroughly; I really use this feedback.  If you don't care that I know who wrote the comments, just email the results.  (I don't open them until later in the summer.)  If anonymity is important, print them out and place them with your exams.

Thanks again for a really wonderful year!

PS: I may have more things to say later in the weekend, or I may not.  It couldn't hurt to check back for updates.  :-)

UPDATE: The evaluation forms online were out of date, so I have revised them.  Anyone who downloaded them prior to 2 PM on Saturday, please do so again.