mr. antolini says "the man falling isnt permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom... so they gave up looking. they gave it up before they ever really even got started."
i kind of see what he means but not really (???)
This fall I think you're riding for - it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started.
The Catcher in the Rye/ Mr. Antolini in Chapter 24
That is the full quote you're looking for. Mr Antolini is trying to warn Holden about how his life could end up. It isn't any specific fall; it's the choices we make in life and where they lead us. This is a general statement that could apply to most anyone, although he directs it at Holden. The following quote might help explain it better;
I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall. But I don't honestly know what kind.... It may be the kind where, at the age of thirty, you sit in some bar hating everybody who comes in looking as if he might have played football in college. Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, 'It's a secret between he and I.' Or you may end up in some business office, throwing paper clips at the nearest stenographer. I just don't know.
The Catcher in the Rye/ Mr. Antolini in Chapter 24
The Catcher in the Rye
