Rabbit Run Symbolism

“ To be a human being is to be in a state of tension between your appetites and your dreams and the social realities around you and your obligations to your fellow man( New York Times Company, 2009).” John Updike sought the clash of extremes in everyday dramas of marriage, sex and divorce( New York Times Company, 2009). The detailed fineness of his descriptive language put him in line with painters and other great authors. Updike's longstanding interest in the terrors and pleasures of sex, marriage, adultery, parenthood, identity, and religion that ordinary Americans have experienced accommodates a considerable argument of why he surely deserves the awards he received. “Rabbit, Run” presents different elements, in which leads to a deeper …show more content…
For example, water is constantly being used in “Rabbit, Run” and is very significant to the characters mental and emotional conflicts. In particular, the first time Rabbit runs, he has the desire to go to the ocean, where water takes on the first meaning: rebirth. In addition, Rabbit’s happy memory of waiting to leave with Janice from the department store, and being bathed in green, underwater light was still a symbol of rebirth – rebirth through union with another; but as the novel procedes, water takes on more mischievous meaning. Such as, right before Ruth and Rabbit have their fight, Ruth goes swimming. Though in Rabbits eyes, the pool represents cleanliness, he also ties it to being wet and cold, and he doesn't like that. (I remember when he dreams about that ice the first night he sleeps at Ruth’s.) Water soon symbolizes sadness after Ruth cries after her and Rabbit’s fight. After Rabbits daughter drowns, consequently the symbol of water takes a complete turn: from rebirth and cleanliness to death and dirt. Water then becomes a symbol of Eccles doubt and hesitancy. Especially the time when he was making those outlandish calls, and he was getting extremely thirsty. Even when he obtained water, it still didn’t help, but I get the idea his thirst is quenched once he starts talking to the teenagers. Now it’s summer, but Rabbit still referring himself as moving on to the "next patch of snow," …show more content…
Smith, would be considered an antagonist.Rabbit constantly consumes himself with the people around him, and lets them antagonize him. As he continues to run from his problems, it seems that life gets easier, but everytime he comes back something always happens. What surprises me is the one person you would expect to be on his side (his father) was not, but made him into an enemy. The one thing that really set me off and made me say that Janice is an antagonist was when she killed Rabbits child. Now with Ruth, honestly she took all the kindness out my heart when she threatened to get an abortion if he refused to marry her. Rabbits main problem was that he always let people intimidate him and was unable to decipher how to handle it; so when he did decide to make his own decision it either made him look like the antagonist or he just ran away. Rebecca June being buried starts to bring out the resolution and the conclusion of the story. It seems like all he wants to do at the funeral is to reveal the truth: Janice is the guilty one. But instead he runs to Ruth because of embarrassment. But soon runs from her too when she threatens him about Nelson who he now acknowledges as the number one person in his life. But the unrevealed truth about whether he stays or runs lay in the next book. I like the way Updike did the ending, because