Re: Mr. Antolini
Bethany M. Edstrom (Bethany.M.Edstrom@Dartmouth.EDU)
Sat, 06 Dec 1997 12:19:12 -0500 (EST)
--- You wrote:
Can anyone come up with a
plausible interpretation that makes Salinger out not to be a homophobe?
--- end of quoted material ---
I wouldn't call this an "interpretation," but as a writer I can say that there
is very little one can infer about a writer's beliefs from observing the
beliefs of the writer's characters. If I write about a character who is
homophobic, racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, anything, and even if I write about
that person in the first person and portray him very sympathetically, that
doesn not mean that I believe what that character believes. In fact, what I (I
use "I" because I do something like this in almost every piece of fiction I
write) am probably doing is challenging myself as a writer. A fiction writer
likes to think he can get convincingly inside the head of ANYONE, no matter how
baffling that person's beliefs are to the writer. There's no challenge in
writing about someone who believes all the same things you do.
In the case of Holden in the Antolini scene, I don't think he is homophobic.
Holden is 16 and scared. He doesn't know what is going to happen next. He's
scared of all adults, in one way or another, and here is an adult he thought he
trusted who is behaving in an unexpected way, so of course he's scared. That
doesn't make him homophobic.
And Salinger? Maybe he was homophobic--I don't know. He certainly wouldn't be
the first, or worst, in his generation (or any). All I'm saying is that we
can't call him homophobic just because his main character is a little scared by
the actions of a possibly-gay man. I think we owe JDS, and all writers, the
respect of separating their own beliefs from those of their characters (compare
this to Nabokov's completely convincing, realistic, and terrifying 1st person
portrayal of pedophile/kidnapper Humbert Humbert in Lolita--an extreme example,
but apt, I think).
Bethany