An Exile Bound To Return

Harry Rabbit Angstrom is a successfully created image by John Updike in hissecond novel Rabbit, Run. As most critics comment, Rabbit is at once sympathetic andyet antipathetic. He is sympathetic in that he alone stands out among the "paralyzed"populace as a consistent and steadfast rebel against the deadening conformity of thesocial life, and antipathetic in that he brings about disaster and damage to peoplearound him with his impulsive and irresponsible escaping. As for Rabbit's returning,the unanimity is that it is an?index of his resignation when he is confronted with thepervasive spiritual inertia and decadence.So starth~g from the Kierkegaardian conception of the self, this dissertation isintended to make a tentative analysis on Rabbit's symbolic motions of running andreturning as equally positively motivated. It consists of five chapters:Chapter One is a brief view of the criticism on Rabbit, Run and states the aim ofthis dissertation. Included in this chapter is also the introduction of the differentstarting point this dissertaion adopts for understanding Rabbit's motions, and the main?content of this dissertation.Chapter Two is devoted to an illumination of Kierkegaard's concept of the selfAccording to Kierkegaard, human being is of teleological nature膖o exist is to liveand to live is to lead a life for something. But when facing the multifariouscharacteristics of human teleos, one needs to choose a goal capable of an embodiment?of human existential essence. Therefore, the principal and primary teleos of humanAbstract47being is to become the authentic self that is a dynamic synthesis of opposites andindissoluble dualities instead of a purely abstract and generalized subject in thespiritual realm. It is a synthesis of the outward and inward, the finitude and infinitude,the necessity and possibility. The duality of outwardness and inwardness is the basicnature in which human being is structured. Alternatively one turns outward in therealm of objectivity and turns inward in the realm of fantasy and imagination. Thuswhen he turns outward, he lives in the finitude膇n the specific social milieu as thisspecific product of a specific environment; when he turns inward, he lives in theinfinitude膇n the limitlessness of fantasy and imagination free of confining from theoutside. Obviously the finitude assumes an aspe妕 of worldliness of human existencewhile the infinitude of otherworldliness. At this level, the self is still in sleepingbecause the two aspects of human existence are separate, eaoh remaining in its ownrealm: But when the finitude is qualified as necessity and the infinitude as possibility,things are quite different. When the finitude is asserted as the necessity, he feelsrestricted and bound; when the infinitude is presented as the possibility, it makes itselfrelated to the finitude and assumes a tone of demand and expectation. They depend oneach other, never one without the other. In view of this basic synthesis of the gelf, oneneeds to integrate them into a harmonious whole and thus make commitment to hisduties in life, taking responsibility for whatever he is required by his positions insociety, in Kierkegaard's words, living an ethical life.Chapter Three is an analysis of the gesture of running made by Rabbit, theprotagonist. Rather than exist exclusively in the oppressively moral and mere humanworld like people around him, Rabbit stands out as a rebel against the confiningexternal reality in the form of instinctive running when torn between the intractableand dialectical tension of his past and present, of his inward calling and outwardconstraints. Although his flight is impossible except the most provisional, what mostcounts is that he does make the upward motion of running, seeking to escape theunbearable suf...