Emotional Novel Rabbit, Run By John Updike

In this emotional novel Rabbit, Run, John Updike takes the main character, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, on a roller coaster ride through the ups and downs of life. The once great basketball star runs into a mental crisis in his mid-twenties and decides to up and leave his son, Nelson, and pregnant wife Janice to escape to the easier life. Rabbit may have had a better relationship with the people in his life if he were not constantly running. His immaturities and insecurities hurt his family, especially his son who is dependent on Rabbit.
Society defines a mature marriage as a loving relationship with a nuclear family in which the parents support and raise the family. Too often, this social contract clashes with individual yearning. Rabbit
is restricted, so is unable to act, as he would truly want. Rabbit defies the societal demands and pursues his own individual wants and needs, which can hurt others in his life. Harry's marriage to Janice is very superficial. They were young teenage lovers, and Janice became pregnant soon afterward. He immediately marries Janice even though this marriage goes against his desire for individuality. Rabbit and Janice are not very close, as Janice is quite shy even about showing her body to her spouse. Rabbit is also beginning to find Janice less attractive, and feels some hostility towards her. "Just yesterday, it seems to him, she stopped being pretty (Updike 13)". One would think that the addition of children would mature a couple and bring them closer together in some instances, but in this case it obviously does not. Rabbit does not value Janice and their relationship; he regards it as something easy to walk out on, or should we say, run out on. He does not put effort into making it work, he simply runs away. Running from problems is not a mature way to deal with difficulty, but this is the only way he knows how to cope.
When Rabbit first runs away from his wife and son he meets Ruth, a prostitute.
Rabbit's love for Ruth is immediate, impulsive, and immature. He clings to Ruth right away, and he provides more security for Ruth than she has ever had. She was used to men using her and walking away afterwards and this is why she pushed Rabbit away in the beginning. However, he persists because he wants her, and she gradually gets used to him. Ruth's love for Rabbit is a bit more mature in this aspect because she took time to develop feelings for him and works at the relationship. When Rabbit runs to the hospital to be with Janice during the birth of the baby, he leaves Ruth and returns to the "normal" life with Janice. And then when he leaves Janice in the middle of the night for the second time, he returns to Ruth. This back-and-forth relationship shows how immature Rabbit's love for both women is because he can't force himself to fully develop love for or commit to either woman and choose a life. When Rabbit is with Ruth, he looks out her bedroom window and sees people marching into the local church. "The thought of these people having the bold idea of leaving their homes to come here and pray pleases and reassures Rabbit, and moves him to close his own eyes and bow his head with a movement so tiny that Ruth won't notice"(78). This displays what he knows is right without the feeling of intense unhappiness welling up inside him uncontrollably. He perhaps feels guilt for the first time since leaving his wife, causing him to feel retribution for his
infidelities.
Rabbit becomes friends with Jack Eccles, the minister of his wife's family. He feels the embarrassment of what he has done in full force through an amiable handshake. The two become good friends and discussed the finer points of Rabbit's life. On their first golf outing, Rabbit is driven to say, "Well I don't know all this about theology, but I'll tell you, I do feel, I guess, that somewhere behind all this there's something that wants me to find it"(110). By this, Rabbit refers to his own pursuit for individualism. The only real love Rabbit has for anyone is for his son Nelson. Even though he ran away from him twice, he does still love him and feels regret for his actions. We know he loves Nelson dearly by the way he talks about "his boy"(19). Maybe this is because he has been with his son since the beginning of Nelson's life and is his blood; he belongs totally to him. He has grown with the child, and cherishes spending time with him.
As you can see, Rabbits major insecurities and his immaturity make it so he cannot manage with the different problems in his life. Instead of dealing with problems maturely, Rabbit runs away from everything he faces, hence the title of the novel, Rabbit, Run. Rabbit does not have the mental strength to confront his everyday problems; the smallest occurrences make him run.