Adultery and dispersed family relationship in John Updike's Rabbit Redux
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Central Department of English Kirtipur, Kathmandu
Abstract
This thesis observes Rabbit Redux as a novel of manner which shows the reality
of middle class contemporary American people about marriage, love, sex, morality,
American values, etc. in the changing American society of 1970s. The main character
Rabbit's wife Janice experiments with freedom by having an affair with a used car
salesman Charlie. Rabbit learns about this at a bar where the television repeatedly shows
Apollo 11 blasting off to the moon. Updike thus reveals the emptiness in the life of his
chief character at the very moment that America is ready to explore a new world in space.
Updike's purpose is ultimately to subvert the authority of all sociological and
psychological interpretations of family and marriage by showing the self contradictory
nature of outer forces and inner motives of the characters. The family is not only the
source of security and mutual affection but if it goes out of the track and family
relationships are dispersed, it becomes as a prison. So, this novel exists in the human
realms of family rather than the intellectual realms of cold doctrinaire. People in this
postmodern world are essentially living in alienation and fragmentation. It shows that
there is a lack of binding force. So, they are torn apart. However, they never lament for
their solitary and disintegrated lives. Updike's characters are guided by internal motives.
They do not follow the established and rational way of life. They defy the natural law and
conventions. For instance, Rabbit, the Central character has nothing to live for except
food and sexual fantasy. He wonders around from wife to friends to old mistress. Janice,
Rabbit's mistress represents postmodernist woman who blur the borderline of family
bond fulfilling her desire.