How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Teddy turned around at the waist, without changing the vigilant position of his feet on the Gladstone, and gave his father a look of inquiry, whole and pure. (1.4)
The child-adult contrast between Teddy and his father is something we see over and over again in the works of Salinger. The child is wise and pure, while the adult foolish and corrupt.
Quote #2
During this little exchange, Teddy had faced around and resumed looking out of the porthole. "We passed the Queen Mary at three-thirty-two this morning, going the other way, if anybody's interested," he said slowly. "Which I doubt." (2.1)
This, Teddy's first line of dialogue, manages to express both youth-like curiosity (he's interested in the ship they passed) and adult-like acceptance (he knows that his parents don't care, but it doesn't bother him).
Quote #3
His voice was oddly and beautifully rough cut, as some small boys' voices are. Each of his phrasings was rather like a little ancient island, inundated by a miniature sea of whiskey. (2.1)
This is already the second time the author has used the word "beauty" to describe Teddy. There is definitely a sense of authorial reverence for the main character here.
Quote #4
He then climbed the broad, shallow, carpeted steps up to Main Deck, one flight up. He took two steps at a time, but slowly, holding on to the banister, putting his whole body into it, as if the act of climbing a flight of stairs was for him, as it is for many children, a moderately pleasurable end in itself. (3.1)
This is an interesting description; Teddy walks "as if" climbing were pleasurable for him the way it is for other kids. Does that mean that it is not, in fact, pleasurable for Teddy? Is he playing at being a "normal" child, or are there really elements to Teddy that are very child-like?
Quote #5
In a squatting position, with the sun at her back and a light breeze riffling her silky, blond hair, she was busily piling twelve or fourteen shuffleboard discs into two tangent stacks, one for the black discs, one for the red. A very small boy, in a cotton sun suit, was standing close by, on her right, purely in an observer's capacity. "Look!" Booper said commandingly to her brother as he approached. She sprawled forward and surrounded the two stacks of shuffleboard discs with her arms to show off her accomplishment, to isolate it from whatever else was aboard ship. "Myron," she said hostilely, addressing her companion, "you're making it all shadowy, so my brother can't see. Move your carcass." She shut her eyes and waited, with a cross-bearing grimace, till Myron moved. (3.14)
Salinger has such a great feel for the way children move and talk; this is a fantastic portrayal of a little girl playing around.
Quote #6
"You're the stupidest person I ever met," Booper said to him. "You're the stupidest person in this ocean. Did you know that?" (3.20)
Booper is a great foil for Teddy. Here we see what a little kid is actually supposed to look and sound like; a child is supposed to be selfish and emotional, unlike Teddy.
Quote #7
In no sense – no mechanical sense, at any rate – did the words and sentences look as though they had been written by a child. (4.3)
Though Teddy still looks like a child, the author drops us a few physical hints – like this one – to remind us that he is not a normal ten-year-old.
Quote #8
Ask him not to send me any more poetry books. I already have enough for 1 year anyway. I am quite sick of it anyway. A man walks along the beach and unfortunately gets hit in the head by a cocoanut. His head unfortunately cracks open in two halves. (4.8)
Teddy does repeat words in the way that little kids do – check out "anyway" and "unfortunately" in this passage. His character is an interesting mix of adult- and kid-like qualities.