Re: Antolini: Life Imprisonment
Pierrot65@aol.com
Tue, 23 Feb 1999 02:39:52 -0500 (EST)
Brendan --
I agree that we can't trust Holden's assessment of Antolini (and I think we
should be careful to keep a close eye on his assessments of everything else,
for that matter: his unsure footing is one of the reasons he, as an adolescent
character, has always ringed/rang/rung so true to so many different people, I
think). I just mean that if we say that the ambiguity of Antolini's actions
opens the door to the possibility of Salinger examining Seymour as having a
"sickness" (pedoph.) we would have to look at Seymour in the same light we
view Antolini and I don't think the ambiguity is there, in that sense. I think
in terms of running themes in the canon (Seymour as a version of Holden & vice
versa) that would color our interpretation of the cliff catching, make it less
than the kind of desperate and semi-heroic sentiment it is and that doesn't
fit for me. I hope that makes a little sense.
With nothing better to do at 1 in the morning,
rick