The Game of Life in Rabbit, Run Perhaps our whole life is simply a game, a game to which society sets the rules and to which we adapt. In John Updike's novel, Rabbit, Run, the protagonist, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom lives his life by the rules of the game of basketball. Rabbit is a man who, until the beginning of the book, respected the rules of society. But Rabbit's ambivalence is different from that of those around him; has difficulty communicating and as a result is often misunderstood and is constantly frustrated by the actions and expectations of others (Regehr). In high school, Rabbit was a star basketball player and now, in his early twenties, he is a middle-class man; work in a middle class job, live in a middle class apartment. While we might not choose to exist in this grey-brown environment, neither would our twenty-year-old protagonist, and that's exactly the point. The fact that we can be disgusted and frustrated along with him is what gives substantial balance to his sometimes unpleasant decisions and helps us react fairly to them (Tragic). This substandard level is a huge disappointment to Rabbit's expectations that he and his surroundings would be of the highest caliber throughout his post-high school life, as they were in his days as a basketball star. What defeats Rabbit in real life is the lack of a basketball counterpart to the hoop. Rabbit loves games because they create and clearly define goals, the way to score points, become world-class, a success. In contrast, the real world does not tell him what that something is that wants him to find it (Markle 46). Coniglio doesn't have the ball, he doesn't have the key to the door in his hands. But in... middle of the paper... Secondary sources Eiland, Howard & Thornburn, David. Twentieth Century Views: John Updike, A Collection of Critical Essays. Copyright 1979 by Prentice Hall, Inc. Magill, Frank. Survey of American Literature. vol. 6 Ste-Z 1885-2224. Marshall Cavendish Co. New York. Copyright 1991. Edited by Frank Magill.Markle, Joyce B. Fighters and Lovers: Theme in the Novels of John Updike. Copyright 1973 by New York University. Regehr, John. Rabbit, run (The pages of John's book). Copyright 1998 by John Regehr http://regent.org/books/reviews/rabbitrun.html. 04-02-00Trachtenberg, Stanley. New essays on Rabbit, Run. The tragic story of a high school athlete. Reviewer: jzk. 4/13/00. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0449911639/maraspgr.../002-4808496-///380.