Women's Worlds In John Updike's Fiction

John Updike (1932- ) the famous contemporary American writer, is a novelist and critic. Truly, the authors in his times favorites big subjects such as world wide hunger, peace progress, the future of our planet which have seldom received preferential treatment, or abundant overt discussions in Updike's books. All that pervades his books is little people living trivial lives in small towns or suburbs. Man, woman, children, housework...these mundane concerns always rest at the heart of his art. However, from this perspective -common people and trivial matters, Updike describes by an exquisitely lyrical style the anxieties of them and probes their inner world and the human spirit.Since many passages scattered through Updike's fictions are said to express disgust or contempt for women, some feminist critics label Updike as a typical 20^th century misogynist. It is true that Updike has depicted many women in his works who are used to depend on their husbands and even regarded as menace. Then why does John Updike write in this way? Is he really a misogynistic author as what feminists have labeled?This thesis focuses on the question that whether John Updike is a misogynistic author or not by analyzing the women characters in John Updike's fiction. Thus. the authorial description on women characters will be the convincing evidence. To find adequate textual basis, the following 6 novels will be discussed in the thesis: Firstly. Rabbit series - Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971). Rabbit is Rich (1981) (Pulitzer Prize). Rabbit at Rest (1990) (Pulitzer Prize) and a novella Rabbit Remembered (2000): Secondly. S. (1989). The thesis consists of introduction, three chapters and conclusion.In the introduction, the author of this thesis briefly introduces John Updike's life, and further stresses the critics' view on Updike's attitude toward women and their evaluation. What is more, the methodology of the thesis writing is mentioned.In Chapter one. the thesis investigates the research on Updike at home and abroad in an all-round way and particularly stresses the feminists" evaluation that he is a misogynistic author. John Updike himself is strongly against the feminist charge and tried in his life many ways in presenting the female characters to respond their charges.Chapter two studies the women's worlds in Updike's Rabbit series, in which the women characters could be categorized into two types: the women characters of femininity and the women characters of maternity. Firstly, the women characters of femininity (Janice, Rebecca and Judi) mirror the very self of Rabbit and it is their fragility and feebleness that awake Rabbit's sympathetic feeling and protecting desire. Secondly, the women characters of maternity (Mary, Miriam and Ruth) help Rabbit shape his very self. As mentioned above, the first category of female characters arouse Rabbit's desire to display his masculinity and his tender feeling for the femininity and the second category of female characters is the psychological refuge for Rabbit's self-consciousness to grow, therefore it is proved in chapter two that women are indispensable for man. hence the conclusion is clearly drawn: Updike is not a misogynistic author.Chapter three mainly explores the women characters in S. In the novel, the image of the protagonist Sarah is mainly represented by her twofold personality - on the one hand, Sarah runs away from her family and seeks for her new life with the influence of feminism, on the other hand, she ironically denies the significance of her feminist position. In all, the portrayalof Sarah in S. cannot prove Updike is a misogynistic author: on the contrary the sentences in S. expressing admiration toward women's body and greatly appraise women's individuality.The final part is the conclusion. By presenting the women's worlds in John Updike's fiction, the author of the thesis draws the conclusion that Updike is nowhere near a misogynist.