One event that intrigues me in this chapter is when Jane's stepfather, Mr. Cudahy, asks Jane for a cigarette. While you are supposed to treat elders with respect, Jane chooses to ignore him, not once, but twice. He then walks back into the house without a cigarette. I am intrigued by this because in most cases you are supposed to treat your elders with respect and be courteous to them, especially your own parents. In my life my parents taught me to treat everyone who is older than me with respect because they have more experience then me. I was always taught to say yes ma'am and yes sir whenever an elder talked to me. Later, she starts to tear up when Holden, who recognizes that she is a little shell shocked, comes over to her to comfort her. Later as Holden is going to a movie with Jane he asks her if Mr. Cudahy ever got wise with her. She said no though and we are left with the question, is she telling the truth or not? This passage shows that there is more going on in Jane's life than we think and the fact that Holden picked up on her disappointment shows that he is aware of his surroundings and how she is feeling. Why doesn't Jane respond to her step-father? Why does Holden ask if Mr. Cudahy got wise with her? What does wise mean? And should you always respect your elders?
Due to Jane’s uncanny actions I believe her stepfather has scared her. Some one sexually assaulted, usually walled up in order to cope with the destruction apposed on their peace of mind. This also explains why the step dad didn’t say anything or get angry when she didn’t answer. He probably didn’t want to make a scene or cause attention by him screaming at her. Jane’s one teardrop is both dramatic and very characteristic of someone seriously wounded. Someone traumatized usually doesn’t break down completely when to choose to ice their emotions to an apparent numbness to the outside world.
ReplyDeleteWise means like flirty, sexual, and or touchy. “Did he get wise with you,” is more of a euphemism for, "did he rape you?" or "Did he sexually assault you?".
Always being respectful to adults is a controversial topic. I believe that yes you should always respect adults, but there are un-avoidable exceptions as in Jane’s possible case.
I am going to answer these questions in a different order to maintain a flow of answers. In this story "getting wise with" means sexually abused. Holden asks this because Jane seemed terrified of her stepfather, which is not normal. Jane, being one of the few people Holden seems to care about, is really worrying Holden so he thinks of reasons as to why she is afraid of him. The most logical solution he can come up with is sexual abuse. It is sort of strange that Holden would just come out and ask that but i assume he felt close enough to her to try and help. She says he never got wise with her but this is obviously a lie. She would not cry over someone just talking to her if there was not a major problem. I believe elders should be respected in most cases but it is physically impossible for me to respect anyone who has sexually abused anyone, or done any other terrible things similar to that. Other that those exceptions, elders should be respected.
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