John Updike’s Rabbit, Run is a complex and subtle exploration of self-destruction, rebellion, and hard-earned redemption. It’s the story of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a small-town twenty-six year-old former basketball star, who feels confined and suffocated by his life. When the novel begins, he’s living in a drab marriage and working a dead-end job – an unfulfilling existence that’s slowly killing him. He’s desperate for an escape, and he finds it in the form of Janice, his high school sweetheart.
He abandons his family and runs away with Janice to a motel, but instead of a shelter from the storm, it’s another kind of prison. Rabbit realizes that being a renegade is not all it’s cracked up to be and soon returns home. He believes that the right thing to do is to be a husband and father and try to make his marriage work, but he finds himself unable to adjust to his old life.
Rabbit is a tragic character in many ways. He spends most of the novel trying to escape from himself. He thinks that if he runsaway from his wife, his baby daughter, and the small-town life he’s been living for the past few years, then he can escape the pain and emptiness that haunts him. But this is a futile attempt because his problems are internal and he’s the only one who can fix them.
Throughout the novel, Rabbit’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, often making matters worse for himself and those around him. He impulsively abandons his family again, marries a former high school classmate, neglects his daughter, Joy, gets into a high speed car chase with a cop, and attempts suicide. What’s more, he’s unable to commit to any one thing: he can’t keep a job, can’t stay in one place, and can’t make a lasting relationship.
However, despite his flawed character, Rabbit is also a sympathetic figure. He is irrational but, at times, logical and reflective. He is desperate yet somehow brave. Updike is able to capture the contradictory nature of Rabbit’s personality, making him both a victim and a hero.
Through his journey, Rabbit eventually comes to understand the truth about himself: that he has been running from his problems all this time, not making meaningful attempts to fix them, and all of his attempts to flee from reality only make things worse. Rabbit gradually learns how to take responsibility and strive for redemption, and although he ultimately falls short in the grand scheme of things, his attempt is what is most commendable.
Rabbit, Run is an important novel in twentieth century American literature, and is essential for readers who want to explore why some people succeed, and why some fail. It’s a book about making mistakes and growing, trying, and striving for a better life, no matter what life throws at you. It’s not simply a story of a young man on a quest for freedom, but also an examination of human nature. Updike’s novel belongs in any library, as it’s a unique exploration of the American Dream.
