The Analyses On Themes And Images Of Rabbit, Run

John Updike (1932-2009) is a famous American writer. His more than 50 years writing career and nearly 70 volumes work guarantee him to be one of the most versatile and prolific writers in contemporary American literature. He is a novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Updike has received several awards including National Book Award in Fiction (1964), O. Henry Prize (1967-1968), American Book Award (1982) and National Book Critics Circle Award.Nearly every ten years Updike published one of his Rabbit Series. They are Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), Rabbit at Rest (1990) and Rabbit Remembered (2001). Among which Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest have won Pulitzer Prizes. His masterpiece Rabbit, Run has aroused both the critics' and readers' great interests. Through the protagonist Harry Angstrom, nicknamed Rabbit, Updike shows the readers a variety of images and themes of the time. On one hand, American economy recovered quickly after the Second World War, as the U.S. was abundant in materials and on the other hand, old concepts have corrupted whereas new conceptions have not set up yet, the U.S. lapse into a spiritual crisis. Harry wants to flee the suffocating environment and find something really significant in his life. He seeks shelter from religion, sex and sports, only to find nothing. He is in such a dilemma that he tries his utmost to get the spiritual salvation in the spiritual wasteland.Obviously Updike is deeply influenced by the Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard. Updike presents people searching for meaning in the painful awareness of their morality and basic powerlessness. There are numerous vivid pictures of American society and deep themes of time and tide. The thesis analyzes the themes and images of the novel based on Christian existentialism.The thesis consists of four parts.The first part gives a brief introduction of John Updike and his novel Rabbit, Run. It introduces the author's life, experience, major works, the main plot of the novel, and a schematic literary review of the novel.The second part presents the theoretical base for this thesis. It introduces the Danish theologian Soren Aabye Kierkegaard and his theories, including the definition of "a self and despair, the existence of absurdity, three spheres of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious stages and the repetition and recollection. It also shows how these theories influence John Updike.The third part serves as the body of the thesis. This part analyzes the themes and images of this novel through the Christian existentialism. It further discusses the family, faith, death and sex themes. The images are various in the novel and the thesis analyzes the images of characters and nature.The last part draws a conclusion of the whole study.