Rabbit Run by John Updike The world of Rabbit, Run by John Updike is a collection of polarities that dramatizes the in-between and the constant state of tension that characterizes humanity. A quick read of John Updike's Rabbit, Run reveals a world of desperate futility in which Harry Angstrom runs in ever-tightening circles. Rabbit is always running, from one woman to another, between Brewer and Mt. Judge, between solitude and society. Rabbit is torn because he has faith in something significant in the world, somewhere, but can't find it during any of his frequent but brief stops. More important than the pointless emptiness of Rabbit's world, however, is the fact that he never gives up on his quest. He searches through sex, Orthodox faith and family for a sign that life is not meaningless. Coniglio conceives of that thing he wants to find as embodied in the perfectly struck golf ball, whose path is straight and true, the bow gradually rising in geometric continuity, traveling far before falling softly to the ground with an imperceptible thud. It is neither the nature of Rabbit's travels nor what he discovers that is vital; it is the fact that he never gives up in the pursuit of excellence that finally confirms John Updike's assertion of the indomitableness of the human character. The structure of Rabbit, Run provides the outline of Updike's intentions. The novel begins and ends with escape. Updike focuses on a Rabbit unhappy in his marriage to his wife Janice Springer, pregnant with their second child, an alcoholic and addicted to Mouseketeers balm. Ironically, Jimmy, one of the Mouseketeers, puts things into perspective one night for Rabbit, who has come home from his job demonstrating the MagiPeeler in five and... in the middle of the paper... runs: Ah : runs." The conclusion suggests at least a fleeting hope and, on the most generous reading, an ecstatic proclamation. After all that Rabbit has endured, he persists in his hopeful vision. This reveals that his creator, Updike, is highly affirmative of the indomitableness of the human spirit. Like a stone in a spring stream, Rabbit is, by his own designs and those of others, tossed back and forth. He endures the death of his newborn, the rejection of his mother, ineffective and senseless of Reverend Eccles and the loss of Tothero who, behind his mother, had the second greatest influence on his life Finally, he loses contact with the child he conceived with Ruth. Despite this, Rabbit retains hope in a future in which he will find the right path that quenches his appetite and appeals to his sense of order and peace.