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Dr. Traylor
Caleb Porter is a cruel and abusive man Jude dates before he begins his relationship with Willem. Jude endures Caleb’s abuse because he’s lonely and believes that someone like him doesn’t deserve anyone better. Willem is away shooting a film for the duration of the relationship and doesn’t know about Caleb—much less the horrendous abuse he inflicted upon Jude—until years later, when Jude reads Caleb’s obituary in the paper and finally tells Willem about the relationship. In the brief time they are together, Caleb relentlessly degrades Jude and belittles his disability. Jude’s wheelchair, which Jude occasionally uses when his leg and back pain makes it too painful for him to walk, visibly disgusts Caleb. He claims that Jude is weak for using a wheelchair when, in theory, he is capable of walking. Caleb also beats and sexually assaults Jude. Harold (and Jude) regards Jude’s relationship with Caleb as a major turning point in Jude’s life, not least because Caleb inflicts major injuries on Jude. Before Caleb, Jude seemed to be on a path toward recovery. After Caleb, though, Jude chooses to believe Caleb (who confirmed all of Jude’s fears about being disgusting and unworthy of love) and ignore his friends (who tried to convince Jude that he was good, blameless, and deserving of love). And once Jude decided he was broken beyond repair, the novel (and Harold) seems to suggest, that Jude would one day die by suicide was all but guaranteed. Caleb later dies of pancreatic cancer. Harold and Andy think that Caleb deserved this painful death, but Jude doesn’t express such animosity.
Caleb Porter Quotes in A Little Life
The A Little Life quotes below are all either spoken by Caleb Porter or refer to Caleb Porter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 4: The Axiom of Equality: Chapter 1
Quotes
When he has clothes on, he is one person, but without them, he is revealed as he really is, the years of rot manifested on his skin, his own flesh advertising his past, its depravities and corruptions.
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Part 7: Lispenard Street
Quotes
When Jacob was a baby, I would find myself feeling more assured with each month he lived, as if the longer he stayed in this world, the more deeply he would become anchored to it[…]. It was a preposterous notion, of course, and it was proven wrong in the most horrible way. But I couldn’t stop thinking this: that life tethered life. And yet at some point in his life—after Caleb, if I had to date it—I had the sense that he was in a hot-air balloon, one that was staked to the earth with a long twisted rope, but each year the balloon strained and strained against its cords, […]. And down below, there was a knot of us trying to pull the balloon back to the ground, back to safety. And so I was always frightened for him, and I was always frightened of him, as well.
Get the entire A Little Life LitChart as a printable PDF.
Caleb Porter Quotes in A Little Life
The A Little Life quotes below are all either spoken by Caleb Porter or refer to Caleb Porter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 4: The Axiom of Equality: Chapter 1
Quotes
When he has clothes on, he is one person, but without them, he is revealed as he really is, the years of rot manifested on his skin, his own flesh advertising his past, its depravities and corruptions.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 7: Lispenard Street
Quotes
When Jacob was a baby, I would find myself feeling more assured with each month he lived, as if the longer he stayed in this world, the more deeply he would become anchored to it[…]. It was a preposterous notion, of course, and it was proven wrong in the most horrible way. But I couldn’t stop thinking this: that life tethered life. And yet at some point in his life—after Caleb, if I had to date it—I had the sense that he was in a hot-air balloon, one that was staked to the earth with a long twisted rope, but each year the balloon strained and strained against its cords, […]. And down below, there was a knot of us trying to pull the balloon back to the ground, back to safety. And so I was always frightened for him, and I was always frightened of him, as well.
