John Updike Rabbit Run Quotes

Rabbit, Run by John Updike is a novel that easily represents classical American literature. Depicting betrayal, heartbreak, and lust, this novel goes through a short span of main protagonist Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom’s life away from his wife. The novel begins right off the bat with foreshadowing Rabbit leaving home. “Sheltered by his chest and arms she blurts with earnestness he didn’t know she still could hold, ‘Don’t run from me, Harry. I love you.’ (Updike 12). Janice, Harry’s wife, explicitly asks him not to run from her after having a fight with him. This creates tension, and gives an especially suspenseful outlook on the future. This quote makes the reader feel especially apprehensive, as the title of the book literally says the main character …show more content…
Rabbit’s go-to phrase when advertising the MagiPeel is “What you need, typical American homemaker, is the Magipeel Kitchen Peeler. Preserve those Vitamins. Shave off fatty excess….” (Updike 73). In addition, while watching TV, Harry thinks about the MagiPeel Peeler and in his head says “The base of our economy. Vitaconomy, the modern housewife’s password, the one word expression for economizing vitamins by the MagiPeel method” (Updike 10). Saying that using the MagiPeel Peeler makes for a healthier meal by preserving vitamins and removing excess fat is false advertising. There is no sizeable scientific data that says the skin has fatty preserves. In fact, there is an abundance of articles that prove that it is an old wives tale, and isn’t true. Not only that, the skin of vegetables contains valuable vitamins, so saying that peeling the skin off preserves vitamins just isn’t true. Hence, the MagiPeel Peeler symbolizes deceit. By creating symbolism in his novel, John Updike makes his book infinitely more interesting and complex. By incorporating underlying meanings, Updike makes his characters and plotline more relatable to readers, making the passage more