A Postmodern Reading ofJohn Updike’s Rabbit at Rest
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of English
Abstract
John Updike’sRabbit at Restraises thepostmodern issues like subversion of
narration, celebration of fragmentation, pastiche, dissemination and so on. The novel
depicts thecondition of American people in the later phase ofthetwentieth century as
symbolizedby Harry ‘Rabbit’Angstrom. Rabbit, inhis mid50s, is living in Condo
Florida. His son Nelson, wife Janice, and children come to staywith himand disaster
unfolds as Rabbit has a serious heart attack and it is discovered that Nelson has been
embezzling to feed this cocaine habit. The novel presents the contemporary issues of
1980s like sexually-obsessed thoughts, the confinement of marriage, the realities of
marital obsessed Americans, family disintegration, sexually transmitted diseases, drug
addictionsand so on. These issues themselves become the determining factors of
postmodern novel. This thesis examines how Updike’s America is moving forward in
the course of time along with all these societal problems.