The Last and Best of the Peter Pans by J. D. Salinger. Short summary

5 seconds

Vincent Caulfield argues with his mother, who has hidden his recruiting form. He realizes that his mother has lost one son, Kenneth, and does not want to lose the other. Like Peter Pan, she wishes to prolong his childhood.

1 minute

Salinger’s unpublished short story.

Holden Caulfield’s older brother Vincent wants to join the army. Nearly everyone he knows has done so.

Vincent’s mother, Mary Moriarity, has hidden his draft notice in the china cabinet. He begins to rebuke his mother for this, and a heated discussion breaks out between them. Mother and son argue about whether Vincent should go to war.

Mary tells her son that he needs him at home, that the hardships of army life are not for him. She points her son to her younger sister Phoebe, who is playing in the yard in her blue coat. Vincent is seized by an impulse to love his little sister.

The mother goes on the offensive and reminds Vincent of the death of his older brother Kenneth. Vincent feels a sense of guilt. But he does not give up, and says that Mary, for the sake of saving him, exhibits selfishness and hypocrisy.

Vincent leaves for his room with mixed feelings, but decides to go to war. He mentally calls his mother «the last and best of Peter Pan» because she does not want to prolong her childhood, but his.