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Throughout J.D. Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” many different themes are used to reveal how the protagonist is lead to his ultimate demise. In the stories, there are many themes that are used such as the fall from innocence into despair and ruin, split personality casing the character’s ruin, and deterioration into madness and obsession. This paper’s intention is to offer a clear presentation on how the two author’s works are similar and different.
The fall from innocence into despair and ruin forces the characters into their own demise. There are many different times where the narrator in the “The Black Cat” would give examples of how he was a kind person, “My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me test my companions” (Poe, 1). This quotation touches on the fact that he was once kind and warm hearted towards animals. It also shows how he loses his innocence if you compare him as described in the beginning of the book to how he turns out in the end of the book. In the story, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” Seymour is shown very innocent at the beginning of the story throughout untill the very end. The conversation with Sybil is one example how he can be innocent “‘I chew candies’ she said finally. ‘Who doesn’t’ said the young man getting his feet wet” (Salinger, 15). The quotation for the story shows how Seymour can have a childish conversation with an innocent child. The loss of innocence is seen the greatest when he gets into the fight in the elevator. They both have a loving and caring nature about themself towards other innocent creatures. One of the differences that there is with the characters would be the fact that Seymour wants to keep his innocence. He does this by keeping calm with Sybil, sending poems, and playing the piano. On the other hand, the narrator of “The Black Cat” did not do much to hold his evil side in but unleashes it on other living creatures. The other...