This paper is to examine the meaning of Seymour`s suicide in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" written by J. D. Salinger. Salinger has become one of the most popular American novelists since the Second World War. He lives in seclusion in rural New Hampshire and has not published any works since 1965. However, the books he has published hold an enduring international appeal for readers. In the 1950s, America was a conformist society and religious freedom flourished. Salinger`s artistry is complex and increasingly post modern. His works from the start may be seen as a progression toward an enlightment that is artistically as well as religiously justified. A close analogue to Salinger`s religious thought is Zen Buddhism, which is essential to an understanding of Nine Stories, which includes "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". Zen explores the virtues of nonsense believing that truth simply cannot be caught by logic. Instead, Zen substitutes "logical nonsense" as a means of penetrating the heart of reality by opening the doors of the senses. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" Seymour and Sybil carry on a playful `question and answer` conversation that suggests the wise nonsense that is an intrigal part of the Zen master-student relationship. Seymour`s suicide is his way of allowing the true Muriel to escape from the banana hole where she has become trapped by her attitude to marriage. In other words, he dies physically in order that she may live again spiritually because his love for Muriel demands a unique and sacrificial effort. The bananafish also should be understood in its relationship to the puzzling reference of the apparent failure of the western civilization. Accordingly, we find out that Salinger expressed some of his own doubts concerning the short stories with a `koan` in Zen Buddhism as a medium that gets at the truth of life.