Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

by

Ransom Riggs

Dr. Golan/The Birder Character Analysis

Dr. Golan is Jacob’s psychiatrist, who convinces him that his nightmares and anxiety are simply responses to the trauma of seeing his grandfather die after a violent attack. However, it’s later revealed that Dr. Golan is also a wight and has taken on a series of personas in Jacob’s life—including Abe’s neighbor, Jacob’s middle school bus driver, his family’s lawn caretaker, and a mysterious birder who arrives on Cairnholm. In fact, Dr. Golan is the one who helped the hollowgast attack and kill Abe. Dr. Golan then uses Jacob to find the other peculiar children, which also enables him to kidnap Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet. Though Miss Peregrine escapes, Dr. Golan hands off Miss Avocet to other wights before Jacob shoots and kills him.

Dr. Golan/The Birder Quotes in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

The Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Golan/The Birder or refer to Dr. Golan/The Birder. 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:
Coming of Age and Self-Confidence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

I’m crouched in the corner of my grandfather’s bedroom, amber dusk-light retreating from the windows, pointing a pink plastic BB rifle at the door. An enormous glowing vending machine looms where the bed should be, filled not with candy but rows of razor-sharp tactical knives and armor-piercing pistols. My grandfather’s there in an old British army uniform, feeding the machine dollar bills, but it takes a lot to buy a gun and we’re running out of time. Finally, a .45 spins toward the glass, but before it falls it gets stuck. He swears in Yiddish, kicks the machine, then kneels down and reaches inside to try and grab it, but his arm gets caught. That’s when they come, their long black tongues slithering up the windows, looking for a way in. I point the BB gun at them and pull the trigger, but nothing happens.

Related Characters: Jacob Portman (speaker), Abe Portman/Jacob’s Grandfather, Dr. Golan/The Birder
Page Number: 44-45
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Others might call the state of being they subsequently assumed a kind of living damnation. Weeks later there began a series of attacks upon peculiars by awful creatures who, apart from their shadows, could not be seen except by peculiars like yourself—our very first clashes with the hollowgast. It was some time before we realized that these tentacle-mawed abominations were in fact our wayward brothers, crawled from the smoking crater left behind by their experiment. Rather than becoming gods, they had transformed themselves into devils.

Related Characters: Miss Alma Peregrine (speaker), Jacob Portman, Dr. Golan/The Birder, Enoch
Page Number: 259-260
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Is this what you want?” Golan shouted. “Go ahead, burn me! The birds will burn, too! Shoot me and I’ll throw them over the side!”

“Not if I shoot you in the head!”

He laughed. “You couldn’t fire a gun if you wanted to. You forget, I’m intimately familiar with your poor, fragile psyche. It’d give you nightmares.”

I tried to imagine it: curling my finger around the trigger and squeezing; the recoil and the awful report. What was so hard about that? Why did my hand shake just thinking about it? How many wights had my grandfather killed? Dozens? Hundreds? If he were here instead of me, Golan would be dead already, laid out while he’d been squatting against the rail in a daze. It was an opportunity I’d already wasted; a split-second of gutless indecision that might’ve cost the ymbrynes their lives.

Related Characters: Jacob Portman (speaker), Dr. Golan/The Birder (speaker), Abe Portman/Jacob’s Grandfather, Emma Bloom/The Girl, Miss Alma Peregrine, Miss Avocet
Page Number: 324
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

I decided I was done lying. “I’m fine, Dad. I was with my friends. “

It was like I’d pulled the pin on a grenade.

“YOUR FRIENDS ARE IMAGINARY!” he shouted. He came toward me, his face turning red. “I wish your mother and I had never let that crackpot therapist talk us into bringing you out here, because it has been an unmitigated disaster. You just lied to me for the last time! Now get in your room and start packing. We’re on the next ferry!” […]

I wondered for a moment if I would have to run from him. I pictured my dad holding me down, calling for help, loading me onto the ferry with my arms locked in a straightjacket.

“I’m not coming with you,” I said.

Related Characters: Jacob Portman (speaker), Jacob’s Dad (speaker), Emma Bloom/The Girl, Dr. Golan/The Birder, Jacob’s Mom, Millard Nullings, Olive
Related Symbols: The Home
Page Number: 344
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children LitChart as a printable PDF.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children PDF

Dr. Golan/The Birder Quotes in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

The Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Golan/The Birder or refer to Dr. Golan/The Birder. 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:
Coming of Age and Self-Confidence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

I’m crouched in the corner of my grandfather’s bedroom, amber dusk-light retreating from the windows, pointing a pink plastic BB rifle at the door. An enormous glowing vending machine looms where the bed should be, filled not with candy but rows of razor-sharp tactical knives and armor-piercing pistols. My grandfather’s there in an old British army uniform, feeding the machine dollar bills, but it takes a lot to buy a gun and we’re running out of time. Finally, a .45 spins toward the glass, but before it falls it gets stuck. He swears in Yiddish, kicks the machine, then kneels down and reaches inside to try and grab it, but his arm gets caught. That’s when they come, their long black tongues slithering up the windows, looking for a way in. I point the BB gun at them and pull the trigger, but nothing happens.

Related Characters: Jacob Portman (speaker), Abe Portman/Jacob’s Grandfather, Dr. Golan/The Birder
Page Number: 44-45
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Others might call the state of being they subsequently assumed a kind of living damnation. Weeks later there began a series of attacks upon peculiars by awful creatures who, apart from their shadows, could not be seen except by peculiars like yourself—our very first clashes with the hollowgast. It was some time before we realized that these tentacle-mawed abominations were in fact our wayward brothers, crawled from the smoking crater left behind by their experiment. Rather than becoming gods, they had transformed themselves into devils.

Related Characters: Miss Alma Peregrine (speaker), Jacob Portman, Dr. Golan/The Birder, Enoch
Page Number: 259-260
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“Is this what you want?” Golan shouted. “Go ahead, burn me! The birds will burn, too! Shoot me and I’ll throw them over the side!”

“Not if I shoot you in the head!”

He laughed. “You couldn’t fire a gun if you wanted to. You forget, I’m intimately familiar with your poor, fragile psyche. It’d give you nightmares.”

I tried to imagine it: curling my finger around the trigger and squeezing; the recoil and the awful report. What was so hard about that? Why did my hand shake just thinking about it? How many wights had my grandfather killed? Dozens? Hundreds? If he were here instead of me, Golan would be dead already, laid out while he’d been squatting against the rail in a daze. It was an opportunity I’d already wasted; a split-second of gutless indecision that might’ve cost the ymbrynes their lives.

Related Characters: Jacob Portman (speaker), Dr. Golan/The Birder (speaker), Abe Portman/Jacob’s Grandfather, Emma Bloom/The Girl, Miss Alma Peregrine, Miss Avocet
Page Number: 324
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

I decided I was done lying. “I’m fine, Dad. I was with my friends. “

It was like I’d pulled the pin on a grenade.

“YOUR FRIENDS ARE IMAGINARY!” he shouted. He came toward me, his face turning red. “I wish your mother and I had never let that crackpot therapist talk us into bringing you out here, because it has been an unmitigated disaster. You just lied to me for the last time! Now get in your room and start packing. We’re on the next ferry!” […]

I wondered for a moment if I would have to run from him. I pictured my dad holding me down, calling for help, loading me onto the ferry with my arms locked in a straightjacket.

“I’m not coming with you,” I said.

Related Characters: Jacob Portman (speaker), Jacob’s Dad (speaker), Emma Bloom/The Girl, Dr. Golan/The Birder, Jacob’s Mom, Millard Nullings, Olive
Related Symbols: The Home
Page Number: 344
Explanation and Analysis: