paper #2

Maggie Rauck

Hopping Down The Bunny Trail

After reading John Updike’s “Rabbit Run” a Shakespearian quote inspired by Socrates comes to mind that encompasses the lesson behind the story, “To thine own self be true, for it must follow as dost the night the day, that canst not then be false to any man”. This quote is important in life because in essence its all you have, people will not always agree or accept your point of view, but you must own up to what you determine is right and wrong. In other words you must see yourself and accept it for who you are and shape it to who you want to be otherwise you are simply a product of what others make you and place you. To be comfortable in your own skin and have integrity and the ability to decide things for yourself is a simple concept, but for so many not a reality. This story is based on a character that was too weak in many ways to say no to his temptation and made bad decisions that forced him to loose sight of what was ultimately important in life choosing a path that involved running, like a rabbit from his problems. Not owning up to your responsibilities and running from your problems will only create more problems. Taking the high road and addressing those problems will temporarily be trivial, but wiping the slate clean with loved ones and yourself will create new beginnings and a fresh start.

The main character Rabbit Angstrom is in every way playing the part and motions of a man, but in every way still is trapped (like a rabbit) in a child’s mindset. You see this from the very start of the book with simple examples of how Rabbit takes the easy road and doesn’t take responsibility and then that lack of responsibility carries over to larger decisions that have greater consequences as the book progresses. The book opens with Rabbit returning from a day at the office and it describes him observing a few small boys playing basketball. A contrast is made between the boy’s simple game of basketball and the image of Rabbit watching from the sidelines. Rabbit an old athlete at heart watching and relives vicariously through the dreams of these boys. The contrast is in the informal game and the boy’s keds (shoes) and the entertainment they have at this game. Rabbit is dressed in a “double-breasted cocoa suit” (5) and is smoking a cigarette. At some point the ball comes towards Rabbit and he takes a shot, makes the basket and at the point like a kid in a candy store it is reiterated that things will naturally work out. Rabbit drops his schedule to play with these young boys and this is the start of the cycle of Rabbit’s life, he regains hope like the innocence of children, but is too weak when the going gets tough to rise above and be true to him.

On the way home he throws out his cigarettes and honestly thinks he will give it up, he returns to his reality. He arrives to a broken family that involves an alcoholic, pregnant wife who has dropped their other son at her mother’s, doesn’t have dinner ready, and is smoking and drinking a lot while being pregnant. Not only does wife Janice kill Rabbit’s innocence that things will be different for the future and between them as a couple almost immediately with arguing incessantly he doesn’t stand up for what is right and still goes to get their kid and her cigarettes, being scared of the frail woman and wanting only to please. At that point you realize Rabbit lacks a backbone to stand up for his unborn child’s health, the neglect of the first born, his pregnant, alcoholic wife’s health, or his own because earlier he had decided to quit smoking. This is a small example of the problems Rabbit avoids that accumulate and deteriorate being true to the people he loves and himself.

The message I believe Updike wants us to gain is to own up to responsibility and take care of your problems. Updike has a crafty way of using simple details to illustrate how Rabbit acts similarly to an actual rabbit. A rabbit is fickle in mannerisms and relationships like the main character. A rabbit lives a very simple, blissful, life enjoying the fruits of life, unthreatening to others, while constantly fearing a predator. The only defense a rabbit has is running to a burrow, which ironically is the way the main character Rabbit chooses to live his life. Later on in the book Rabbit starts running and leaves his hometown, wife, and family. Eventually Rabbit decides to turn around and at least be back in his own surroundings. In ways I believe that is more cowardly because it isn’t where you go, but what you do when you get there. Rabbit doesn’t own up to responsibility that he left he just ignores it and although he literally isn’t fleeing never stops running from the problems. When talking with Eccles, a minister who processes many human-type flaws, but is good-hearted and sympathetic Rabbit talks about his lifestyle and says “I don’t really have a plan. I’m sort of playing it by ear”(90).

This statement makes his mentality of childlike immaturity, lack of responsibilities, and desire to only get through life day to day without long term goals and ambitions evident. A rabbit’s only concern is to go with the flow eating when hungry, running when frightened, and mating when necessary. This shows Rabbit’s lack of control over himself or situations and although you do sympathize with these people the truth is that they have lazy, work ethic to clean up their own mess.

Rabbit picks up another woman because it is easier for him. She isn’t attractive, but is an easy target for Rabbit and goes along with what he says because in ways she too is trapped wanting attention and love in any direction. Her crime is home wrecking, even if Rabbit’s family was already broken. The two women in Rabbit’s life need him for different reasons and he is unfit for both, using them for his own selfish desires. This is a further way he is like a rabbit trapped and scared, still running. When it was convenient for him to need a job from Janice’s (wife) dad he took that. But when he needed a place to stay when he left his wife he invited himself to Ruth’s place. Ruth again plays into the childlike dream of what Rabbit sees in the future. He describes to Eccles his relationship with Janice as second-rate and when Rabbit asks Ruth why she likes him, she comments, “Cause you haven’t given up. In your stupid way you’re still fighting,”(80). Rabbit likes this because the confusion behind his life that is because he is making things harder running and burrowing without purpose is justified. Rabbit feels that in the confusion someday his life will work out.

Rabbit’s life still is basically a constant balancing beam where he weighs out decisions and the ifs, buts, and possibilities of luck and what could happen had he made a better decision. In one part of the book he goes home to his old house to gather some things to move in with Ruth, he leaves Ruth with the dishes and then thinks on the way of how Ruth is a better cook than Janice. Rabbit is happy at this point when he is alone packing his things because he is able to grab his belongings and return with a hop, skip, and a jump away from his reality to Ruth’s without the stress of his family or wife. On his way out though Eccles is waiting and offers him a ride to chat about his wife.

This to me is the climax in many ways to the story, Rabbit displaces the responsibility and after this moment is forever a broken record of running from problems escaping reality. Rabbit describes the feel of Eccle’s handshake, “for an instant Rabbit fears he will never let go. He feels caught, foresees explanations, embarrassments, prayers, reconciliations rising up like dank walls; his skin prickles in desperation”(88). Rabbit until this point is pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been to coast through the unpleasant times in life, leaving a path full of destruction for someone else to pick up. Rabbit in this sense feels caught and trapped being forced to at least delve into some of his past and those he has hurt until now. It is now that Rabbit chooses to talk with Eccles and opens up to why he came back from running from his family, but does not wish to rekindle things with Janice. He then agrees to chat again on the golf course. Progressively Eccles although a smoker, and hardly a saint tries to not change, but improve Rabbit’s view on life. Eccle’s does this by simply saying, “ You’re a coward…you worry nothing except your own worst instincts” (115).

Eccles through a series of chats progressively pushes Rabbit to God. Everyone in Rabbit’s life has seemed to do this, but never in a non-perfect, all excepting way such as Eccles. Eccles’s pushes Rabbit to own up to at least himself and that although at the end of the day you can’t always be a crowd pleaser, possibly the most important crowd could be the relationship and acceptance of yourself. Rabbit struggles with this concept he realizes because of Eccles that it is hard to be vulnerable to love someone. Eventually his imperfect behavior dwindles and although he still enjoys a smoke, returns to Janice, but still doesn’t stop her drinking and face up to their broken home. Janice is upset at the end because she can’t feed her newborn, Rabbit looks to the easy route again, “Have a drink. Have a drink” (209). Rabbit is still smoking and at times doing not what’s right, but what is easy for the moment. Ruth is still heartbroken looking for love in the worst places, trapped in her past and future. Janice is still a victim to alcoholism and burnt out on trying to believe that Rabbit won’t ever leave because she knows that it is the nature of him to run from her, the problem, and the solution. Janice is bruised from the lack of having companionship from her husband and by the end of the novel it is Rabbit running again. Rabbit describes illusion of reality as “the block of brick three-stories is just like the one he left, something in it makes him happy”(264).

Rabbit is forever a coward for feelings, emotion, or depth from people determined to luckily fall into place. He shys away from small responsibilities such as daily chores, as well complexities and difficulties that come in life. Sooner rather than later he is living a path that he hasn’t chosen, but is so accustomed to the nomadic style of living ashamed, trapped, and running he can’t correct the past, own the blame, and improve the future. The laundry list of accountability overwhelms him and the blame from not addressing the blame, guilt, and neglect only is temporarily silenced when he runs. Rabbit is only temporarily engaged in anything and the truth is that if he were happy he wouldn’t be running, but would linger proudly and unashamed. So I guess Socrates was right, “To thy own self be true”.