The Comedic Form And Tragic Connotation Of Rabbit Is Rich

Rabbit is rich is one of the most important novels in John Updike's Rabbit series. On the one hand, its content covers a large amount of social events in the 1970s, such as the Carter administration, the oil crisis, the inflation, the economic downturn, the Pope visit, the Iran hostage incident and the Cold War; On the other hand, the novel describes the general spirits through portraying characters in the text, and then analyzes the social culture changes under it. Life circumstances changes is the key point to realize the above narrative purpose in the novel. "Rich" is a change in material life, which is full of comic at some level to Rabbit. It makes the Rabbit satisfactory through experiencing these good feelings from the wealth possession. However, it is ironic that the Rabbits spiritual life did not increase with the wealth. It instead lets Rabbit sink into spiritual crisis situation. How to understand such a paradoxical reversal? What tragic connotation is implied in this paradox? This is one of the most important aspects of this paper. In addition, the tragic connotation is also reflected from the other characters in the novel, such as Janice who is the wife of Rabbit. We can find in her much more of the spirits of how the female locate themselves in the society and the pursuits of self-significance. Only the comparison of the changes in her fate can we really seize the tragic connotation reflected by Janice. Other characters in the novel, such as Charlie, Nelson, Cindy, Peggy, Thelma and Ronnie also demonstrate their unfortunate fate, through their descriptions along with the main characters portraying demonstrate the American people of that era, especially the middle-class people in the truly survival situation. It is the most important feature that expresses tragic meanings by the comic form. The novel is full of comic atmosphere reflected from the surface of the text. The factors consisting of them mainly include:the civilian materials from ordinary family life, the settings, character portraying, language etc. However, just as appears in the Rabbit of the paradox between his material life and spiritual life, the novel in the narrative art aspect also embodies in a paradox, namely, demonstrating tragic connotation by the comic form. Here the changes of life conditions are also the key to connect them. Only to grasp this point and compare the changes of the characters can we deeply comprehend the tragic connotation implied in the novel. It is only in this way that we can not only hear the happy laughter brought from the wealth, but also notice the tears which results from the changes in our reading of the novel.