Understanding Allusions

J.D. Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" makes a number of allusions that contribute to the tone and mood of the story.

-He references the German poet Rilke.
-He quotes a line from T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" - "mixing memory and desire" - when he and Sybil are discussing Sharon Lipshutz.
-He mentions the story Little Black Sambo.
-The name Sybil is also an allusion.  Look up what a sybil is and think about how this may connect with the story and Sybil's character.


Here is the first line from "The Waste Land" that contains the line Salinger alludes to.  Consider how this line may connect with the story as a whole.  Why do you think Salinger may have included it?  In what ways is the world in which Seymour lives a type of wasteland?

The Waste Land

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering	5
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,	10
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,	15
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. Practicing with allusions:  Think of yourself as a character in a real life situation that you have been in in the past week.  Then, think of a song, poem, book, or movie that relates in some way to the situation you were in.  Try making an allusion by weaving in a line from this work in the same way that Salinger does in "Bananafish."