I do not know very much about painting, but I know enough to know that the Art Teacher did not know much about it either and that, furthermore, she did not know or care anything at all about the way in which you can destroy a human being. Stephen, in many ways already dying, died a second and third and fourth and final death before her anger. Jonathan Kozol
About This Quote

In this quote, J.D. Salinger depicts a relationship between a student and the teacher that is quite dysfunctional. The Art teacher’s anger is not at the student, but rather at her own ignorance. She is angry that she doesn’t know much about painting, but she is also angry at the fact that she doesn’t know anything about the way in which you can destroy a human being. She was so focused on being ignorant about painting, she never stopped to think about what may have been happening internally to the student who was her subject of study.

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