The Importance of Being Present

White Mike and Holden

coping with

Parental Absence

Seminar

Missing Mothers ­ Caring Fathers ­ Absent Parents

Shifting Family Models in Recent Young Adult Fiction in the USA

HU Berlin / SS 2004

Author

Marc Kemper

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Table of contents

Table of contents - 2 -

1 Introduction - 3 -

2 The Different Types of Parental Absence - 3 -

2.1 White Mike and his Parents - 4 -

2.2 Holden and his Parents - 5 -

3 The Substitute Role Models - 5 -

3.1 White Mike′s Flesh-and-Blood Role Models - 5 -

3.2 Literature as a Substitute - 7 -

3.3 Role Models of Holden - 8 -

3.3.1 His Siblings - 8 -

3.3.2 His Teachers - 9 -

3.4 Role Models Reviewed - 10 -

4 White Mike and Holden in their Social Outcast States - 11 -

4.1 What White Mike thinks about being a Drug-Dealer - 11 -

4.2 Sociologist and Psychoanalyst Views - 12 -

4.3 Holden′s Motif for Rejecting School - 13 -

4.4 Widespread Scientific Explanations - 14 -

5 Narrating Parental Absence - 15 -

5.1 McDonell Narrating Parental Absence - 16 -

5.2 Salinger Narrating Parental Absence - 16 -

5.3 The End of the Year - 17 -

6 Conclusion - 17 -

7 Blibliography and Webliography - 19 -

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1 Introduction

A reviewer named Sullivan wrote that "

reviews that compare White Mike to Holden

Caulfield

" would make her "

shudder in disdain

"1. This was the spark that lit my

thoughts about the lives of the two adolescent protagonists.

"What do you want? Because if you don′t want something, you′ve got nothing. [...] no one will

remember where you were frozen and buried, and you will no longer be anywhere."2

"Certainly it is! Why the hell isn′t it? People never think anything is anything really. I′m getting

goddamn sick of it."3

It is the very special ways Nick McDonell and J.D. Salinger deal with the idea of

problematic adolescent identities, which make

Twelve

as well as

The Catcher in the

Rye

seem extraordinary in many ways. Despite the fact that their techniques and

plots are worlds apart, there are to some extent parallels which catch the eyes of at

least the attentive reader.

The first section of this paper deals with the different types of parental absence

White Mike and Holden have to cope with. Concerning this, there is also laid an eye

on the by many means similar impacts on them. The substitute role models are

discussed in the following part of the paper, while the third part shows up the different

types of outcast state White Mike and Holden live in. Last but not least, the fourth

section of this paper deals with the stylistic devices both McDonell and Salinger use

to create their special atmosphere of parental absence.

2 The Different Types of Parental Absence

There are no doubt many ways in which mothers and fathers can be absent.

Referring to an essay by Frances Nadeau, the absence could be divided into four

different types.

1 2p. Online. Internet. 13.05.2004 15.00. Available FTP :

http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/reviews/twelvereviewsullivan.shtml

2 McDonell, Nick.

Twelve

. New York : Atlantic Books 2003, 23. White Mike is thinking about"how rich

everyone is".

3 Salinger, J.D..

The Catcher in the Rye

. London : Penguin Books 1994, 155. Holden′s sister Phoebe

before was asking him what he wants to be, and he did not give a conventional answer.

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The first type of separation is provided by death and illness, the second type is

separation by living in different places4. A third kind of shift in the relationship

between children and their parents may be caused by some "

outside force

" 5 - like

war. A fourth type of parental absence is the more or less harsh rejection of the

parental lifestyle by the children6. If that is the case, a fatal conflict is mostly

inevitable.

A discussion of the different types of parental absence in

Twelve

and

The Catcher

in the Rye

is what this chapter provides - focussed on the familiar background of the

main protagonists, White Mike in

Twelve

and Salinger′s Holden Caulfield.

2.1 White Mike and his Parents

At the time when the story takes place, the mother of White Mike has been dead for

three and a half year. At that former point in time, Mike moved with his father7, this

being a symbol for the new life both of them had to cope with. That his new room is

depicted as being "

hot

", and that "

there was nothing on the walls"8,

could be regarded

as a symbol for the gap the death of his mother left in his life, the heat symbolizing

danger and the empty walls showing that his life is in a way incomplete.

The father of White Mike is absent in another way. He is always stuck into his work,

which consists in giving "

people a place to eat

" 9 in restaurants. The little time they

spend together is the main reason why the relationship between them is very loose.

McDonell himself in an interview gives an unmatched explanation of why the child-

parent-relations in his debut are like that.

"And why are there no parents? Because these are rich kids and their parents are off getting

rich and being rich."10

4 Nadeau, Frances A..

The Mother/Daughter Relationship in Young Adult Fiction. In: The Alan Review

.

New York : 1995, 15.

5 Nadeau, Frances A., 15.

6 Nadeau, Frances A., 16.

7 McDonell, Nick., 58.

8 McDonell, Nick., 58.

9 McDonell, Nick., 158.

10 4p. Online. Internet. 24.05.2004 12.15. Available FTP :

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/twelve2.asp

Nick McDonell is interviewed by his Editor Morgan Entrekin. The question to McDonell′s answer

From which these lines are quoted is: "What about the question of the adults? They′re strangely

absent in this book. Was that intentional?"

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Reading that they are spending their time and energy just for earning money, it

seems obvious that White Mike′s father as well as the other parents do not provide

any basis for a satisfying relationship.

2.2 Holden and his Parents

It is a boarding school where Holden lives, except for his vacations. This fact

reveals how weak the relationship between him and his parents is. Physical

togetherness only exists in the short intervals when he is at home. His father being a

successful lawyer, his mother being occupied by her social duties, even in his

vacations Holden seems to be alone in at least in a psychological way. Throughout

the story, not a single word is exchanged between Holden and his parents. It could

be argued that this lack of communication intensifies Holden′s feeling misunderstood.

That he thinks his parents would like him to be a "

hot-shot" 11,

and knowing that he

is not, seems to be his existential problem. He is most of the time moving back and

forth between his wish for earning the respect of his wealth-oriented parents and his

own system of values, which concentrates on honesty and humanity.

3 The Substitute Role Models

Being parted from their parents, either in a physical or in a psychological way, both

White Mike and Holden Caulfield are in a strong need of substitute role models they

can identify with. To show up the wide-spreading spectre from which these

substitutes are drawn, is the aim of this chapter.

3.1 White Mike′s Flesh-and-Blood Role Models

Though "

buried and mourned by a few

"12, White Mike′s mother is still very crucial to

his edifice of ideas. Attending her burial, for him the loss appears to be a symbol for

the senselessness of life:

"You have seen that before you lies a great stretch of road, and it is windswept or blasted by

the hot sun or covered in snow, [...], but no matter what, it is utterly empty."13

11 Salinger, J.D.., 50.

12 McDonell, Nick, 88.

Here it is told what White Mike was thinking while attending his mother′s burial.

13 McDonell, Nick, 88f.

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