Run And Nowhere To Run

John Updike is widely considered to be one of the greatest American writers of his time. His most famous work is his Rabbit series which chronicled the life of Harry Angstrom over the course of several decades, from young adulthood to his death. Rabbit, Run, the first of the series, delineates the life of American middle class in the 1950s. Although it does not win Updike any prize, it is by no means unimportant in that it has started the chronicle of America with the help of Rabbit. Rabbit, Run has provided a probe into the life of average Americans in Eisenhower years.This thesis makes an analysis on Rabbit, Run, and it will illustrate how Rabbit makes his action according to the behavioral systems determined by human nature, and human nature here is one of the concepts put forward by Literary Darwinism. It is human nature that requires Rabbit to take action in his own way, but what Rabbit has done is totally at odds with moral standards which are also the necessary product of human nature, so what renders Rabbit's life tragic is human nature, and Rabbit is doomed to failure.The thesis is divided into five parts:The first chapter is a brief introduction of John Updike and his Rabbit, Run.The second chapter is the introduction of Literary Darwinism which explains the synthesis of the theory of evolution and Evolutionary Psychology. It puts its emphasis on the concept of human nature, and then introduces how Darwinism is utilized to deal with literary works.The third chapter makes use of Literary Darwinism to examine what Rabbit has done, and points out that the inevitability of his action is determined by the behavioral systems included in human nature.The fourth chapter explains that altruism, one of the key issues in social behavioral system, requires the conformity to moral standards in human society. Therefore it is made clear that the collision between Rabbit's instinctive action and moral standards is the inevitable result brought by human nature, and the individual needs against moral standards are the causes of Rabbit's tragic life. The last is the conclusion part which firstly reiterates both Rabbit's action and his collision with moral standards are the inevitable products of human nature, and then it points out that the imbalance of individual instinct and group requirements are at the root of the collision, therefore it draws the conclusion that it is because of human nature that Rabbit ends up in a tragic circle of running, and he has to suffer the agony brought about by his action, his running is doomed.