Literary Review of Rabbit Run by John Updike Essays

Literary Review of Rabbit Run by John Updike John Updikes novel, Rabbit, Run, is about a man named Harry â€Å"Rabbit† Angstrom. Rabbit is a brainless guy whose career as a high school basketball star peaked at age 18. In his wifes view, he was, before their early, hasty marriage, already drifting downhill. We meet him for the first time in this novel, when he is 22, and a salesman in the local department store. Married to the second best sweetheart of his high school years, he is the father of a preschool son and husband to an alcoholic wife. We are at ground zero watching Rabbit struggle with aging, religion, sexuality (particularly sexuality), nature, and the trade-offs between freedom and attachment, and rebellion and†¦show more content†¦Its a well-traveled premise for a novel, but executed and polished to a hilt. As we see Rabbit Angstrom struggle to keep apace with his given life, we are meant to see the social milieu that he lives in. Readers do get an acute sense of time and place, but what of it? Not that all fiction should strive for the Meaning of Life, but the feeling you get after reading Rabbit, Run is that of caffeine rush which you know will fade. And it does. I dont mean to slight Updikes legacy - he is one of the best writers we have in the States. And read as a tetralogy, the Rabbit books do encapsulate four decades of Americana with a sprawling and lyrical sweep. It truly is an accomplishment. As an individual novel, Rabbit, Run is emotionally involving and a hell of a good read. But it moves us tantalizingly close to showing us what literary greatness is, then ultimately leaves us short. Has life ever seemed to much for you? Do you sometimes just want get away from it all? Well, here is a man that does it all for you, Mr. Harry Rabbit Angstrom. He is the man for running away from just about anything that is a conflict for him. Updike investigates this unfortunate soul of the suburban middle-class with the use of many similes, metaphors, motifs, and imagery. In Rabbit, Run, John Updikes simple language brings reality to the central character of Harry and his boredom and disgust with his present life. In his early