Re: Antolini: Life Imprisonment
Emily Friedman (bananafish_9@yahoo.com)
Tue, 23 Feb 1999 19:36:20 -0800 (PST)
Like many adolescent boys Holden was a little homophobic due to his
own insecurities. He over reacted to Antolini touching him -which was
just a gesture done out of sympathy and concern-not anything sexual.
When I first read Catcher I thought the opposite, but then I realized
that Holden was a crazy kid who did not always have a good sense of
reason.
-Liz Friedman
---Pierrot65@aol.com wrote:
>
> 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
>
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