Why is Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps Phoebe's Favorite Movie?

In Chapter 10, Holden shares his love for his kid sister Phoebe through the following description:


You should see her. You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your whole life. She's really smart. I mean she's had all A's ever since she started school. As a matter of fact, I'm the only dumb one in the family. My brother D.B.'s a writer and all, and my brother Allie, the one that died, that I told you about, was a wizard. I'm the only really dumb one. But you ought to see old Phoebe. She has this sort of red hair, a little bit like Allie's was, that's very short in the summertime. In the summertime, she sticks it behind her ears. She has nice, pretty little ears. In the wintertime, it's pretty long, though. Sometimes my mother braids it and sometimes she doesn't. It's really nice, though. She's only ten. She's quite skinny, like me, but nice skinny. Roller-skate skinny. I watched her once from the window when she was crossing over Fifth Avenue to go to the park, and that's what she is, roller-skate skinny. You'd like her. I mean if you tell old Phoebe something, she knows exactly what the hell you're talking about. I mean you can even take her anywhere with you. If you take her to a lousy movie, for instance, she knows it's a lousy movie. If you take her to a pretty good movie, she knows it's a pretty good movie. D.B. and I took her to see this French movie, The Baker's Wife, with Raimu in it. It killed her. Her favorite is The 39 Steps, though, with Robert Donat. She knows the whole goddam movie by heart, because I've taken her to see it about ten times. When old Donat comes up to this Scotch farmhouse, for instance, when he's running away from the cops and all, Phoebe'll say right out loud in the movie--right when the Scotch guy in the picture says it--"Can you eat the herring?" She knows all the talk by heart. And when this professor in the picture, that's really a German spy, sticks up his little finger with part of the middle joint missing, to show Robert Donat, old Phoebe beats him to it--she holds up her little finger at me in the dark, right in front of my face. She's all right. You'd like her. The only trouble is, she's a little too affectionate sometimes. She's very emotional, for a child. She really is. Something else she does, she writes books all the time. Only, she doesn't finish them. They're all about some kid named Hazel Weatherfield--only old Phoebe spells it "Hazle." Old Hazle Weatherfield is a girl detective. She's supposed to be an orphan, but her old man keeps showing up. Her old man's always a "tall attractive gentleman about 20 years of age." That kills me. Old Phoebe. I swear to God you'd like her. She was smart even when she was a very tiny little kid. When she was a very tiny little kid, I and Allie used to take her to the park with us, especially on Sundays. Allie had this sailboat he used to like to fool around with on Sundays, and we used to take old Phoebe with us. She'd wear white gloves and walk right between us, like a lady and all. And when Allie and I were having some conversation about things in general, old Phoebe'd be listening. Sometimes you'd forget she was around, because she was such a little kid, but she'd let you know. She'd interrupt you all the time. She'd give Allie or I a push or something, and say, "Who? Who said that? Bobby or the lady?" And we'd tell her who said it, and she'd say, "Oh," and go right on listening and all. She killed Allie, too. I mean he liked her, too. She's ten now, and not such a tiny little kid any more, but she still kills everybody--everybody with any sense, anyway.


How do these allusions and references reinforce themes in Salinger's novel?

What is Holden's only real criticism about his little sister Pheobe?

Holden's Review of Olivier's HAMLET

How does Holden's take on Shakespeare's Hamlet reinforce themes in Salinger's novel?


In Chapter 16, Holden shares his thoughts on actors and Sir Laurence Olivier in Hamlet:

"I don't like any shows very much, if you want to know the truth. They're not as bad as movies, but they're certainly nothing to rave about. In the first place, I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do. Some of the good ones do, in a very slight way, but not in a way that's fun to watch. And if any actor's really good, you can always tell he knows he's good, and that spoils it. You take Sir Laurence Olivier, for example. I saw him in Hamlet. D.B. took Phoebe and I to see it last year. He treated us to lunch first, and then he took us. He'd already seen it, and the way he talked about it at lunch, I was anxious as hell to see it, too. But I didn't enjoy it much. I just don't see what's so marvelous about Sir Laurence Olivier, that's all. He has a terrific voice, and he's a helluva handsome guy, and he's very nice to watch when he's walking or dueling or something, but he wasn't at all the way D.B. said Hamlet was. He was too much like a goddam general, instead of a sad, screwed-up type guy."


In the 1948 film, Olivier delivers the famous "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy:

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause—there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action.

In the climactic final scene, rich in layers of dramatic irony, Olivier as Hamlet duels with Laertes, brother of Ophelia, son of Polonius.



Holden describes his favorite scene with:

"The best part in the whole picture was when old Ophelia's brother--the one that gets in the duel with Hamlet at the very end-- was going away and his father was giving him a lot of advice. While the father kept giving him a lot of advice, old Ophelia was sort of horsing around with her brother, taking his dagger out of the holster, and teasing him and all while he was trying to look interested in the bull his father was shooting. That was nice. I got a big bang out of that. But you don't see that kind of stuff much. The only thing old Phoebe liked was when Hamlet patted this dog on the head. She thought that was funny and nice, and it was. What I'll have to do is, I'll have to read that play. The trouble with me is, I always have to read that stuff by myself. If an actor acts it out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying about whether he's going to do something phony every minute."


Why does Holden rather read the play himself? 

Two more contemporary takes on Hamlet:






LORD POLONIUS

Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!

LAERTES

Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

In this scene, Hamlet appears to act mad as he speaks to Polonius - using repetition and ambiguous accounts that make little sense to Polonius, Ophelia's father.




LORD POLONIUS

[Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my
daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.
What do you read, my lord?

HAMLET

Words, words, words.

LORD POLONIUS

What is the matter, my lord?

HAMLET

Between who?

LORD POLONIUS

I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

HAMLET

Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here
that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of
wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir,
though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet
I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for
yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab
you could go backward.

LORD POLONIUS

[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method
in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

HAMLET

Into my grave.

LORD POLONIUS

Indeed, that is out o' the air.
Aside
How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity
could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable
lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.

HAMLET

You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
more willingly part withal: except my life, except
my life, except my life.

LORD POLONIUS

Fare you well, my lord.

It's 2019 - Do We Still Teach TKAM?

Consider reading the following articles:



Why Are We Still Teaching 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in Schools? Oct. 19, 2017
By Alice Randall

"We need to ask what lessons we are conveying with Harper Lee's classic, and how useful they are to 21st-century students."

Race and Racism: Context TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Journal:

"Words don't have meaning without context." - Ta-Nehisi Coates

1. Who can use the N-word?

Understand being inside a community - there is a relationship with that group - a connection; however, outside the circle of a community, one may not use certain words out of respect.

Using words in an ironic fashion within a group could be considered an act of reclaiming the word.


Journal:

2. In your own words, what is racism?




Journal: 

3. Why does this family have to have this talk?

Transcript of Dr. Howard Stevenson's TED Talk

 Attempt to empathize with the boy as well as the parents in this scene.

4. What is "reverse racism"? 

What you need to understand...

Watch this comedian Aamer Rahman explain the societal dynamics of racism.

More on HuffPost

This isn’t a new phenomenon. When segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace was asked if he considered himself to be a racist during a 1968 interview, he offered a similar deflection.

“No sir, I don’t regard myself as a racist,” Wallace said, “and I think the biggest racists in the world are those who call other folks racist. I think the biggest bigots in the world are those who call other folks bigots.” Link

5. What is "institutional racism"?



"The House We Live In" asks,

"If race is not biology, what is it?"

This episode uncovers how race resides not in nature but in politics, economics and culture. It reveals how our social institutions "make" race by disproportionately channeling resources, power, status and wealth to white people.

https://www.racepowerofanillusion.org/

TRAILER:

Race Preview from California Newsreel on Vimeo.

Read this article about falsely accused Scottsboro Boys:

Alabama Pardons 3 ‘Scottsboro Boys’ After 80 Years

Vocab form Merriam Webster:

subsidize

 verb

sub·​si·​dize | \ ˈsəb-sə-ˌdīz  , -zə-\

subsidized; subsidizing

Definition of subsidize

transitive verb

: to furnish with a subsidy: such as

a : to purchase the assistance of by payment of a subsidy

b : to aid or promote (someone or something, such as a private enterprise) with public moneysubsidize soybean farmerssubsidize public transportation

divestiture

 noun

di·​ves·​ti·​ture | \ dī-ˈve-stə-ˌchu̇r  , -chər, də-, chiefly Southern -t(y)u̇(ə)r\

Definition of divestiture

1: the act of divesting

2: the compulsory transfer of title or disposal of interests (such as stock in a corporation) upon government order

divest

 verb

di·​vest | \ dī-ˈvest  , də-\

divested; divesting; divests

Definition of divest

transitive verb

1a: to deprive or dispossess especially of property, authority, or titledivesting assets to raise capitalwas divested of his rightsdivesting herself of all her worldly possessionsencouraged the university to divest itself from fossil fuels

b: to undress or strip especially of clothing, ornament, or equipmentChristmas trees divested of their ornaments

c: RID, FREE

2: to take away from a person

equity

 noun

eq·​ui·​ty | \ ˈe-kwə-tē  \

plural equities

Definition of equity

1a: justice according to natural law or rightspecifically : freedom from bias or favoritism

b: something that is equitable

2a: the money value of a property or of an interest in a property in excess of claims or liens against it

b: the common stock of a corporation

c: a risk interest or ownership right in property

d: a right, claim, or interest existing or valid in equity

3a: a system of law originating in the English chancery and comprising a settled and formal body of legal and procedural rules and doctrines that supplement, aid, or override common and statute law and are designed to protect rights and enforce duties fixed by substantive law

b: trial or remedial justice under or by the rules and doctrines of equity

c: a body of legal doctrines and rules developed to enlarge, supplement, or override a narrow rigid system of law