58
Popular Culture Review
O l i v e r : We’re allowed to use the Radcliffe library.
Je n n y . I’m not talking legality; I’m talking ethics.
Je n n y . Harvard’s got five million books; Radcliffe a few
thousand.
O l i v e r . I only want one. I’ve got an hour exam tomorrow,
damn it!
Je n n y . Please watch your profanity, preppy.
Oliver. Why do you think I went to prep school?
Je n n y . Y o u look stupid and rich.
O l i v e r . Actually, I’m smart and poor.
Je n n y . N o , I’m smart and poor. . .
The banter continues and Oliver asks her about her music class:
O l i v e r . What’s polyphony?
Je n n y . Nothing sexual, preppy.
O l i v e r . I told you, my name is Oliver.
Je n n y . First or last? —
O l i v e r . First.
Je n n y . Oliver what?
O l i v e r . Barrett.
Je n n y . Barrett like the poet?
O l i v e r . Yeah, no relation.
Je n n y . Barrett like the hall? —
O l i v e r . Yes.
Je n n y . I’m having coffee with a Harvard building.
O l i v e r . I’m not Barrett Hall. My great grandfather just gave it
to Harvard.
Je n n y . So his not-so-great grandson could get in?
Thus with the reduction of Oliver Barrett IV to “preppy” we come to the
end of the Proper Bostonian’s ascendancy. Oliver’s family is depicted as harsh,
the exchanges between father and son are bitter, even nasty—while with the
passage of years and it being quite acceptable to trust anyone over 30, Oliver
Barrett III seems eminently reasonable. Of course, though, from the film’s
perspective, even suggesting that self-indulgence and instant gratification ought
not be the poles of existence automatically marks one as a despot, if not a fiend.
All of the film’s references are intended to disparage, and even make disgusting
the traditions of Oliver’s family, but the good, clean, decent, working class
values of Jenny’s family are meant to exemplify salt-of-the-earth preciousness.
Even though Oliver’s father gives his son thousands of dollars for Jenny’s
care—simply because he asks for it—we are to regard him only as a horrid old
stiffneck.
The superficial similarity in characterization between vile old Mr. Barrett
and mean old Mrs. Vale in Now, Voyager is fascinating. Mrs. Vale is like Mr.
Barrett in that she seems to offer only financial support to her child, but Gladys