Point of View

Most of Salinger's stories in this collection are told in from a purely descriptive point of view in the third person. There is no impartial, omniscient narrator and the characters' motivations and emotions are only revealed through their words and actions. Some of the stories are told in the first person, in the form of reminiscences. In these cases, the narrator provides some insight into his own thoughts, but those of other characters are not revealed. One story does provide a third-person account of the inner thoughts of the main character, but only of that character and no others.

"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is told in the third person through a series of conversations with short intervals of description between the dialog. Salinger employs a similar point of view in the stories "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", "Down at the Dinghy", "Pretty Mouth and Green My...