One key
line in the story is on page 16. “Not in
my face baby,” the young man said, putting his hands on Sybil’s ankle. “Well, it’s
about time he got here, your daddy. I’ve been expecting him hourly. Hourly.”
I think that this is a key line in
the story because it explains a lot while saying little. After reading this
quote you learn a lot about Seymour and some of his problems. You realize that
he is flirting with Sybil who happens to be only 2 or 3 years old. We know this
because he is calling her baby and putting his hands on her. You start to realize
that Seymour may have some strange feelings toward Sybil. This is an issue
because she is only 3 and so she doesn’t understand that Seymour is actually
flirting with her. In terms of understanding the story, this quote also helps. If
D.J Salinger didn’t include this quote in the story then I don’t think that the
readers would fully understand the issue that Seymour has. The fact that the
author added the part about Seymour touching Sybil’s ankles and calling her
baby made you realize that things weren’t right, and made you read the rest of
the story thinking that Seymour is a creep rather than just a regular guy.
Hannah, your point about the impact of certain words--"Baby," specifically--is great. The DICTION (word choice) is part of how an author creates tone and feeling. And yes, even though we might not understand Seymour, we do feel that the word makes us as readers uncomfortable. Be careful not to think about things in terms of the possibility; the word "if" can't really exist in our world of reading because we only have what the author DID include.
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