The Incident with Mr. Antolini in Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Near the end of Catcher in the Rye, perhaps the climax of the novel, and after two days of Holden Caulfield feeling let-down or betrayed by every adult interaction he has, there’s a scene where Holden arrives at the home of a former teacher of his, late one night, planning to spend the night on the teacher’s couch. The scene concludes with the teacher, Mr. Antolini, touching Holden’s head while Holden sleeps, a touch that Holden, when he awakes, immediately interprets as a sexual advance. The incident bothered me the first time I read Catcher in the Rye as a teenager and it always felt a little icky whenever I re-read the book since then. But is Mr. Antolini really molesting Holden or is the touch more innocent?

Holden is asleep on Mr. Antolini’s couch. He wakes because he feels a hand on his head. It’s Mr. Antolini’s hand. Holden recalls:

“What he was doing was, he was sitting on the floor right next to the couch, in the dark and all, and he was sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head.” (p. 195)

There’s a difference between petting and patting, I think. Petting is stroking and feels more sexual. Patting is a lighter touch and could be more innocent. It’s clearly unwanted touching, and Holden is a minor. But Mr. Antolini’s action is ambiguous.

Holden is upset, initially. But two pages later, after he’s slept the rest of the night at Grand Central Station, he reconsiders what happened:

“But what did worry me was the part about how I’d woke up and found him patting me on the head and all. I mean I wondered if just maybe I was wrong about thinking he was making a flitty pass at me. I wondered if maybe he just liked to pat guys on the head when they’re asleep. I mean how can you tell about that stuff for sure? You can’t.” (p. 198)

So now Holden definitely remembers the touch as a “pat” not a “pet.” And maybe a pat would have been OK, if it was just a pat and not “a flitty pass.”

Mr. Antolini denies any sexual intent. When Holden wakes and asks, “What the hellya doing?” Mr. Antolini answers:

“Nothing! I’m simply sitting here, admiring–” (p. 195)

Admiring does sound like sexual interest. And earlier, when Holden gets ready for sleep and Mr. Antolini goes to the kitchen for another drink he says to Holden, “Good night, handsome.” (p. 194). But Mr. Antolini knows Holden well. He was his teacher and then a continued mentor and family friend after Holden left the school. “Handsome” could be merely playful, paternal, platonic affection. And “admiring” might mean admiring Holden’s youth, his intellect, or his potential.

Mr. Antolini is married, but we know that doesn’t prove anything about his sexuality, and Holden knows it, too. In an earlier episode Holden has drinks with a guy named Luce. Luce is a few years older than Holden and was Holden’s Student Advisor at a former school Holden attended, the same school where Mr. Antolini was Holden’s teacher. Holden says about Luce, “He knew quite a bit about sex, especially perverts and all.” Apparently one of Luce’s talents was knowing for certain the sexual orientation of famous people:

“Old Luce knew who every flit and Lesbian in the United States was. All you had to do was mention somebody–anybody–and old Luce’d tell you if he was a flit or not. Sometimes it was hard to believe, the people he said were flits and Lesbians and all, movie actors and like that. Some of the ones he said were flits were even married, for God’s sake.” (p. 145)

So that prior scene sets up the reader to doubt that Mr. Antolini having a wife confirms his heterosexuality. Lillian Antolini is described as “lousy with dough” and “about sixty years older than Mr. Antolini” which, even with the exaggeration, sounds suspiciously like a marriage of convenience. But Holden also notes that Lillian is Mr. Antolini’s intellectual equal, and, “they seemed to get along quite well.” (p. 184)

It might be a sham marriage, whether Lillian is a willing partner or an unwitting dupe. Or it might be that the marriage is sincere. Their domestic arrangement seems normal. Just before Holden arrived they were entertaining “some Buffalo friends of Mrs. Antolini’s…” Mrs. Antolini was already in bed when Holden arrives. She gets out of bed to make coffee and then goes back to bed. There’s no tension between the married couple. She calls Mr. Antolini, “Darling” and he gives her a kiss as she leaves the room. Holden says, “They were always kissing each other a lot in public.” (p. 189)

One more clue. After Holden wakes and confronts Mr. Antolini he quickly dresses and gets out of the apartment. He waits at the elevator while Mr. Antolini stands at the apartment door. When the elevator finally arrives Holden recalls:

“Boy, I was shaking like a madman. I was sweating, too. When something perverty like that happens, I start sweating like a bastard. That kind of stuff’s happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid. I can’t stand it.” (p. 196)

Twenty times? What kind of “stuff” is he talking about? In earlier scenes where Holden comments on homosexuals (i.e. men Holden assumes to be homosexual) he doesn’t feel threatened by them, there’s no discomfort, hate or “phobia” just bemusement. So whatever happened, “twenty times” doesn’t seem to have been traumatic and may just have been similar, normal displays of affection that Holden doesn’t understand, or misunderstands.

The episode is disturbing in the novel. It feels like a confirmation of Holden’s dismal view of humanity, that even the seemingly wisest and kindest persons are rotten inside. But as a gay man, the implied homosexuality and Holden’s disgust disturbs me. Was Salinger really intending to portray Mr. Antolini as sexually attracted to Holden? Or was his touch more a gesture of the same paternal care and concern he displayed in their earlier conversation? In either case it wasn’t welcome to Holden or consented to, but did he read too much into it and over-react, as he thinks he may have on Monday morning? Or was Mr. Antolini improperly acting for his own gratification, objectifying Holden and making Holden’s quick exit the correct response?

In the end there’s not enough evidence to determine either way what Mr. Antolini actually meant by “admiring” Holden and patting him on the head while he slept, or what Salinger meant us to assume about Mr. Antolini. Salinger doesn’t need to fix Mr. Antolini’s sexuality one way or the other to make his point that Mr. Antolini, like all adults, is flawed, or at least Holden judges him as such. Whether Mr. Antolini actually betrayed Holden or Holden only feels betrayed, is the problem Holden has with every person in the novel. Whether we can come to trust and love other people knowing that everyone has their failings, and despite their flaws, is the challenge of growing from childhood to adulthood, and is the theme of the entire novel.