小说《兔子，跑吧！》的主题研究

论文总字数：28049字

摘 要

二战后的美国作家大多着重表现“追求自由的流浪者”的美国人形象。约翰·厄普代克的著作《兔子，跑吧》完美的解读了二十世纪五十年代美国中产阶级的生活境况和社会风貌。本篇论文是以作者撰写小说的时代背景为基础，着重研究了小说主人公所涉及的家庭，婚姻以及社会现实问题，通过分析小说隐喻手法的使用来探讨主人公在忍受着社会束缚和内心冲突下，对自我天堂的不断探索和追求。

关键词：隐喻；逃跑；追寻；失败

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Use of Metaphor in the Novel 3

3.1 The definition and functions of metaphor…………………………………...3

3.2 Metaphors in the novel……………………………………………………....4

4. Analysis on the themes of Rabbit, Run……………………………………...7

4.1 Escape from real life………………………………………………………...7

4.2 Pursuit of an ideal life……………………………………………………….8

4.3 Inevitability of failure……………………………………………………….9

5. Conclusion 10

Work Citied 11

1. Introduction

John Updike was one of the most famous novelists in contemporary literature. He won lots of prizes and left many works in his life. It’s worth mentioning that Nicholas Mills said "If social historians want to know how America moved from the Eisenhower era of the 1950s to the Clinton era of the 1990s, they will find Updike"s rabbit novels a must-read." And his rabbit novels that cannot be ignored most is Rabbit, Run.

This novel was created in 1950s, Eisenhower period, which is a quiet era without any vitality, but also an era of new changes. The America and the entire Western world were experiencing a spiritual crisis. The impact of the shadow of the World War II made many people feel empty, distressed, confused and anxious. Manufacturing and family building grew under the wave of economic prosperity after World War II. Although the material life of the American in the 1950s was extremely rich, the real life environment was mediocre and dull. Traditional values were declining sharply.

This novel describes the life of a 26-year-old former high school basketball star named Harry Angstrom. He was trapped in the role orientation of society -- father and husband and dissatisfied with the mediocre work and boring family life. He made attempts to escape from pressure and responsibilities to seek for his paradise, but he was unable to completely get rid of the shackles of life.

This paper discusses the protagonist"s constant exploration and pursuit of his own paradise under the social constraints and inner conflicts through analyzing the use of metaphor in the novel. This novel shows an irreconcilable contradiction between the individual"s need for freedom and the spiritually impoverished society. For Harry who are lost in modern society, traditional authoritative representatives, such as society, family and religion, lost their functions of guidance. And it was possible to mislead his behavior and thinking. Therefore, it is inevitable for Harry to fight against traditional values by methods of running away. As far as the inevitability is concerned, this paper discusses Harry’s character and social reality.

2. Literature Review

Despite Rabbit, Run widespread praise for the accuracy and artistry of its language, as well as its profound impact and evocative power, the initial reaction to the novel has been decidedly mixed.

Stanley Edgar Hyman commented on the author"s intelligence, scholarship, honesty and creative imagination, and he considered Updike to be the most gifted young writer in America. American writer Philip Roth said, "John Updike was the greatest writer of our time... Like Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 19th century, he is and always will be a national treasure”. Jayne Parini believes that "No one can grasp the special smell of the air in the area of Pennsylvania like Updike...Pigeon Feathers (1962) is probably still his best collection of stories on the subject.” As for Rabbit, Run, different critics have different views, focusing on different aspects of the novel. They concentrated on the emotional, social, cultural, historical, religious, philosophical and artistic spheres. Some critics focused on assessments of the protagonist"s personality. Someone considers Harry as a saint of the absurd because his struggle for freedom was an expression of positive values. For example, R. W. B. Lewis regards Rabbit as a picaresque saint with a vision of the absurd and the need to find that world in which he can again experience the sacredness of achievement. Xu Fulin believes that the rabbit is different from the heroic figure in traditional literature. His resistance is mixed with helplessness, cowardice and absurdity. Other critics decry him as a misshapen social grower and a devastating mirror of the soil in which he grew up. For example, Robert DE Weller evaluated Rabbit in this way: "irresponsible, undependable, and gutless, Rabbit is the quintessence of the nonhero."

In China, there are few critical monographs on Updike, but only a few articles mainly introductory studies on authors and novels. Yang Qi, a master from ShanDong University, studies on the novel’s theme that pursuit of self-identity and faith. Rabbit is an intermediary between life and death, the past and the present. Faced with a bleak future, he tried to fight against the era whose civilization was declining, and even took the way of escape. But he had to admit that America is all the same. Although there was no place to escape, Rabbit did not give up pursuing self-identity and insisting his beliefs. His unwilling to yield to the spirit of exploration was depressed, but still kept running forward.

As far as Rabbit is concerned, most English critical works are more about the skills of the novel than the subject matter. What’s more, influenced by the master, Li Nini, who is from BeiJing JiaoTong University, I see Harry as a loser. In Li’s research, Harry was a vagrant who was looking for his paradise regardless of the difficulties and barriers. Therefore, this paper mainly uses the previous analysis of the language art in this novel, metaphor, to explore the theme of this novel that a loser who seeks for freedom and self-value.

3. Use of Metaphor in the Novel

3.1 The definition and functions of metaphor

In English, metaphor is a rhetorical device for making an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated, but which share some common characteristics. A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. It is the psychological, linguistic and cultural behavior of perceiving, experiencing, imagining, understanding and talking about such things under the implication of the other kind of things. In order to enhance the effect of expression, the author is always used to using various language means in writing. Literary works do not directly reflect the reality, but in the specific form of images, through the understanding of the author and through the creation of his characters to reflect the reality. Literary works use all rhetorical devices to create images, among which metaphor is the most commonly used. For example, poetry, especially modern poetry, has important characteristics in word-sentence collocation. It likes to break through the habitual relationship between words and sentences and connect some seemingly unrelated things together. New critics generally call it metaphor when they combine words and sentences that seem to be unrelated to each other.

As the most common means of expression and an important means of artistic expression, metaphor plays an important role in expression’s vividness, conciseness, emphasis and other aspects. If used skillfully, metaphor will be more flexible and vivid than simile. The three functions of metaphor are cognitive function, cultural function and rhetorical function. This paper mainly analyzes its rhetorical function which is the most essential one to explore the theme of the novel, Rabbit, Run. Metaphor, as a kind of rhetoric, can enhance the effect of language expression and make the language more rich, vivid and aesthetic. For example, “Low wages are the country’s trump card at this stage of its economic development”, in this sentence, “trump card” vividly expresses the importance of low wages to the development of the country at the present stage.

3.2 Metaphors in the novel

John Updike’s unique combination of realism and metaphors expresses and deepens the theme of the loser who seeks his own paradise in a dynamic rhetoric. The novel mainly involves four metaphors, which are rabbit, trap, ball and running.

The title of the novel contains two metaphors, rabbit and running. And the theme of the novel is also reflected in the title. The protagonist Harry, nicknamed Rabbit, was active on the basketball court when he was a teenager, and his agility as a rabbit brought him honor. Rabbit not only depicts Rabbit’s appearance, but also shows his cowardice, suggesting that he chose to run. He feels sensitive and has an intuitive understanding of the objective world, truth, goodness, beauty and ugliness. However, he never had a clear understanding of himself, only obeyed his nature and ran aimlessly. The threat of life and the inner anxiety aroused by strong sexual desire occupied his life, but running gave him the hope of self-salvation. However, many attempts have failed. For him, disharmonious marriages, boring jobs and a hypocritical society which is full of indifference are all pitfalls. His life was a series of comic gestures, aimless, like a magic dance without faith. Rabbit was afraid of losing freedom and being imprisoned which made him feel restless and threatened. Rabbit was just an ordinary worker in the middle class, who struggle between ideals and reality. The image of Rabbit is typical and universal in America. We can see the general situation of human existence and the general characteristics of human nature in him.

In this novel, Rabbit’s several escapes all ended with a return to the origin. With the change of the times, the material life of the United States has become more and more abundant, and people"s sense of crisis has become more and more serious. The theme of self-seeking has been resonated in literary works. One of the most frequently appeared images in Updike’s works is escape and loss. Rabbit"s escape was doomed to failure from the beginning. In the course of his galloping, his repressed spirit had not been relieved at all. If he could take heart to run way from his wife, he could have the same courage to escape from his mistress. Once he felt that he was falling into a trap, anxiety and fear will drive him to struggle and run away. His running is not limited to an external physical movement, but belongs to the spirit and soul. After many traps, Harry seems to have no way to escape. Harry is a kind of nihility in Ruth"s eyes: "You can"t even count a mouse. You can"t even emit odor. You even have no charm to emit odor. You"re nothing." The attempt to escape from life is as absurd as the attempt to escape from one"s own shadow. However, Rabbit"s value is also reflected in his constant running. The dissatisfaction with mediocre life itself contains a positive factor, such as an idea opposed to reality and a persistent pursuit. With a vagrant soul unwilling to compromise with the hypocritical adult society, he persistently pursues his dream, truly feels the existence of life, and longs for a simplicity originating from nature and returning to nature. He looked forward to a life style of obedience to order and rules, just like his favorite basketball game. Instinct encourages him, "Everything is right, as long as you make up your mind to go free.” There was an admirable spirit in his struggle, as Ruth explained why she liked him: "Because you haven"t given up yet. You"re still struggling with your foolish behavior." However, in this distorted society, no one can guide Harry in the right direction. In this aimless struggle, he finally ran into the inner self of the smallest circle.

The third metaphor that appears most frequently in the text is the trap. Harry was not charming and popular any more after marrying Janice. In the 1950s, the United States was prosperous on the surface, but people were spiritually impoverished. Updike was used to describing protagonists who seek relief from the pursuit of sexual indulgence and death, trying to escape from various crises but falling into traps. The trap metaphors in the works take many forms, such as traps, nets and holes. Rabbit was deeply despaired by the messy house and the untidy wife. Faced with his wife’s corruption and order, Rabbit suddenly flashed a trapping eye, sweeping Janice, the disorderly apartment and unsatisfied work. Rabbit did his best to liberate himself from such a terrible world. Stimulated by this moment, he decided to run away. Every place Rabbit fled through was very similar to her place of residence, and the net became denser and denser, making him breathless. Sexual indulgence has always been the literary theme that Updike paid attention to and repeated appeared in his works. In this novel, sexual behavior is not only the way for Rabbit to pursue freedom and get relaxed, but also a bottomless trap that firmly ensnared him. The first escape ended in failure, as did the expectations of seeking spiritual consolation from former coach was useless. He met Ruth, a part-time prostitute, who was the new home for him to take up residence. He was proud of being a basketball star and having sex with a girl when he was in high school. So the victory on the basketball court and the victory of sexual conquest merged in his mind, which means that after his basketball dream died, his life was in a mess too. At this point, sexual behavior became the only way he could express his passion for life. The only connection between Rabbit and Ruth was sexual relationship, and he got from this relationship. However, having sex with Ruth was both his temporary refuge and must the next trap he desired to escape.

Another metaphor involved in this article is the ball, including basketball and golf. At the beginning of this novel, Harry saw a group of 12-year-old boys playing basketball on his way home. He stopped and participated in playing basketball game with them. When he realized that his basketball skill didn’t decline, he felt been occupied by power and enthusiasm. Basketball symbolizes his youth, the vitality of life was hard to find in the hypocrisy and treacherous adult world. Sexual activity is more like a basketball game in his eyes. He wanted to review his wonderful skills through many times of sexual activity. However, the former basketball star could only rely on memories after leaving his glorious court. In order to seek more solace, he yearned for the games on the field, in addition to sexual activity. He was always looking for something or a moment to cheer him up. When he played golf, he found what he was looking for was the moment he hit the ball. More importantly, Rabbit temporarily felt relaxed in the golf game. Golf appeared frequently in Updike’s works and was endowed with unique meaning. “Like religion, we can examine and change our lives through a movement. After trying, you will feel the subtle transcendent meaning of the unusual feeling.” (John 106) Golf is the most mysterious motions which is like a mirror and it is an external projection of inner itself. As Harry said, “All I know is everything in my body.” The world is like a golf court, and life is a game of discovery.

4. Analysis on the themes of Rabbit, Run

4.1 Escape from real life

Rabbit was an outstanding basketball star when he was in high school. At that time, he was full of popularity, honor and accompanied by beautiful women. But meanwhile, he tended to be perfectionist. He wanted a clear and regular life, so even on his way home form work, when playing basketball with kids on the roadside, he took off the jacket of his suit and folded it neatly and put it on a clean dustbin lid. But now, the 26-year-old Rabbit was selling “magic peelers”. His life is so mediocre and boring because he lived at the bottom of the social ladder, lived in a rented house and drove a car which his father-in -law sold him at a discount. What’s more, he considered Janice as a unenlightened fool, because she didn’t know how to respond his jokes and taunted him about quitting smoking. As he said to Eccles, “ as long as you’ve done something first class whatever it is , and then done something second class, there’s a sense of loss” . The sense of loss is the first thing to make him run away from his family.

The second thing mentioned is Rabbit’s role. He has become Janice’s husband and Nelson’s father at age of 26 which required him to take on family responsibility and live within traditional social norms. However, Rabbit was an individual with strong self-awareness which made him want to save himself all the time. As an adult, his behaviors should be mature and prudent to match his family and social responsibility. But his strong sense of self determined that he was always as capricious and unpredictable as a child As Springer put it, “he was so spoiled that he thought he could get what he wants” and he never thought of responsibility.“Harry’s problem is not lack of affection but excess of affection.’’ He felt trapped in the invisible web of family responsibility, social class and work, so he decided to break through it to pursue paradise and run away again.

The last factor resulting in his escape is the historical background. With the rapid development of material production, people’s living standards rose rapidly in 1950s. However, those development did not bring them spiritual liberation and freedom ,but caused their spiritual world increasingly empty .Traditional values and norms of behavior have been destroyed and old lifestyles have changed dramatically .A series of social contradictions came one after another : Industrialization not only made people become subservient to machines but also made ordinary labor become uncreative. The high urbanization and the developed transportation made the relationship among people became indifferent. The changeability and speculation of commodity society made people deeply confused about future. Rabbit’s psychology was a typical reflection of the American social psychological state at that time .Rabbit’s escape is in order to find a new spiritual religion and a free place where he needn’t to be at mercy of any anybody .As Ruth put it, “ you fight despite you are stupid”.

4.2 Pursuit of an ideal life

Rabbit’s most direct method of pursuing freedom was to escape. His escape can be summarized six times in detail. The first time he left Janice; the second time he left his coach; the third time he left Ruth because his wife had a baby; the fourth time he left Janice because she refused his sexual request and he felt humiliated; the fifth time he left everyone because of the criticism in the cemetery and the last time he left pregnant Ruth. Running away was an expression of his discontent and protest against the mediocrity of life, and it was the only way he could show his determination. In his eyes, whatever he did was right as long as he made a decision to search for freedom. There is a genuine admiration in his struggle. As Ruth explained why she liked him, “because you haven’t give up, you are still struggling in your foolish behavior’’.

There are many descriptions of sexual behavior in this novel. It is obvious to see that sexual behavior is also a way for the Rabbit to prove his worth. Women enable men to show kindness and responsibility. Modern men feel depressed because they have no chance to express their determination and joy to conquer in galloping the war as ancient warriors did. And the corruption of modern politics is killing their individuality, so the only way they rediscover masculinity and the meaning of survival is to conquer women. For Rabbit, sexual behavior was a way to prove his existence and what he wanted is not just the pleasure of making love but the power of control. Rabbit’s desire was not so much sexual as spiritual. What sex brought to him was an ephemeral transcendent felling of light and this magical moment made him forget the terrible reality and mundane vexation.

The novel begins with a scene in which Rabbit played basketball with a group of boys. Basketball was once his dream, but now it was a method of venting his passion and pursuing freedom in his boring life. It is mentioned before that Harry was a high school basketball star and it was the most successful thing he ever did and the only thing he could be proud of. In this sense, the basketball court was Rabbit’s paradise in which he can find his perfect value. When he played golf on a beautiful court like Eden, he found that what he was looking for was the moment he hit the ball. What more important for Harry was the perfect track that golf crossed, because it reproduced the first -class feeling that basketball brought to him in the past. Harry looked forward to an ordered and regular life that like his favorite basketball, which was his whole life and made him feel life meaningful.

4.3 Inevitability of failure

Rabbit ran away many times. He wanted to pursue his paradise and enjoy freedom, but he was back in the cage of his family and society in the end. One reason for this consequence is his character. His nickname Rabbit implied his timid and sensitive character. This character led to the incompleteness of his resistance. Instead of fighting resolutely against the mediocrity of family and social life, he chose to escape the suffocating environment. He didn’t know where he was going and how to get there, and he never thought rationally about his goals and his future. He just instinctively felt that he was doing right thing and cared about his own feeling .As he said to Ruth, “I don’t know, I don’t know any answers here. I just know what works for me .You’re right on my ass.” He was afraid of everything all the time so that he wanted safe places to hide himself. He was frightened to be in the face of Janice, mother-in-law and coach. He dared to show his heart to pastor .It was the constant fear that drove him to run away and find a safe place. Feeling safe in a familiar place made it impossible for him to completely leave his original living environment, which also implied that he will return home sooner or later.

Anther reason for the result is external pressure. No one knew what Rabbit wanted and sought. His coach only superficially thought the reason for his escape was that the relationship between Janice and him has faded. Harry’s father was so angry at his behavior that he has gone so far that he forgot him finally. Although his mother put all the blame on Janice instead of him, she didn’t care about Harry because he has married. Because nobody understood him correctly, Rabbit failed to run away. On the highway, “he wondered why there are so many signs pointing back and so few pointing forward”, this suggests the difficulty of resisting in an age of materialism, indifference and conformity. What Rabbit did violated people’s moral bottom line. Therefore, he was bound to be attacked by the public .Rabbit used one person’s power to fight with the whole society and the result must be a failure.

5. Conclusion

Rabbit showed his break with vulgar society in a passive but positive way---running away. He was brave to pursue paradise and freedom regardless of norms and customs. But form the beginning. Harry’s nickname implied that he was good at running and his helplessness. Whenever he can not bear the oppression, he was eager to escape from the chaotic world to a warm and beautiful place. However, he was in the morbid society where functions of family, school and religion have been distorted and it doomed Rabbit’s dream to failure. In this era of self-deprivation and spiritual impoverishment, Rabbit must rely on it to pursue their beliefs while denying traditional religion. He firmly believed that there was "a better thing" waiting for him to discover. "Finding it" became his belief and strength in life. In order to get rid of the shackles of traditional moral concepts, Rabbit"s pursuit of belief in the "God is dead" world gave new meaning to life.

Through the perspective of people"s mental state in the United States in the 1950s, Updike established the typical American cultural image of "Rabbit". The loss of Harry"s identity and his moral orientation profoundly reflect the decline and lack of morality in American society. As his name implies, anxiety and disillusionment become the spiritual portrayal of the times. In a society of material desire and extreme spiritual barrenness, Harry"s spirit of inquiry, which was unwilling to yield, was suppressed. However, he is still persistent in the pursuit of self and belief.

Work Citied

程爱民:《二十世纪英美文学论稿》．上海外语出版社．2000．

[Cheng Aimin. On the Twentieth Century British and American Literature. Shanghai Foreign Languages Press,2000.]

董文胜,张宜林:圆与网:梦境与困境,《兔子,跑吧》的主题与意象.1998 52-56.

[Dong Wensheng. Zhang Yilin. Circle and Net: Dream and Dilemma, The Theme and Images of Rabbit, Run. 1998.52-58]

Granville Hicks, “ A Little Good in Evil.” Saturday Review,5 Nov.1960.p.37.

John Updike. “ Why Rabbit Had to Go.” New York Times Book Review.1990.p.23.

约翰•厄普代克:《兔子跑吧》.万正方译.郑州.河南人民出版社.2000.

[John Updike. Rabbit, Run. ZhenZhou: The People’s Press of Henan.2000]

John Updike. Rabbit, Run. New York. Knopf.

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