Unfulfilled Libidinal Yearning: Human Irresponsibility in John Updike’s Rabbit, Run

Abstract

The present thesis makes an intensive study of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a protagonist in John Updike’s Rabbit, Run. It deals with the human irresponsibility of Rabbit on the basis of Freudian psychoanalysis. Rabbit, a young man guided more by the impulses and desires, discards his familial responsibilities and runs away when he scrutinizes himself that his alcoholic, old- fashioned and childlike wife Janice cannot fulfill his libidinal yearnings. Rabbit, ignoring his responsibilities to others moves to the lap of a prostitute Ruth Leonard just to quench the thirst of his libido. Hence, the crux of the research is to relate Rabbit’s human irresponsibility with his discontented libidinal yearnings.