On The Narrative Strategies Of Controlling Distance In Rabbit Is Rich

John Updike is one of the most eminent literary giants in American literature. With his versatile and polished style and his plentitude of philosophical preoccupation, his works, especially “Rabbit” Series, have been concerned and received enthusiastically by academics and general readers. Rabbit Is Rich is the third of Rabbit Tetralogy, which represents the highest achievement of Rabbit novels. In the novel, Updike with his sharp insight for the small wonders of the commonplace traces out Rabbit’s familial joy and discord, depicting the anxiety of modern people in American society.A myriad of achievements have been made on the study of John Updike’s Rabbit series. However, a rhetorical narratological approach to probe into Rabbit Is Rich remains a field that demands further attention. Drawing from the rhetorically oriented distance theory put forward by Wayne C. Booth and some theories of classical narratology, especially the insights from Genette, Bal and Lodge, the thesis centers on rhetorical effects of narrative strategies of controlling narrative distance, endeavoring to investigate how Updike finishes his feasible communication with his readers to achieve the aesthetic effect of the story of Rabbit Is Rich. By fusing textual analysis with theoretical explanations, the thesis seeks to illustrate the rhetorical effects of Updike’s outstanding artistic narrative skills.This thesis consists of three chapters as follows:The First Chapter discusses the flexible variation of focalization in Rabbit Is Rich. Different modes of focalization demand different degrees of the reader’s participation in the story. By the variation of focalization, the author successfully controls the cognitive and emotional distance between the narrator, characters and the reader. The analysis of the focalization facilitates the appreciation of the novel and advances the understanding of Updike’s ideas and values.The Second Chapter demonstrates the perfect cooperation of story time and text time by tracing out the way in which order, frequency and duration are carefully manipulated to enrich the plots and control narrative rhythm in Rabbit Is Rich. By the flexible shift of narrative time, the author effectively adjusts narrative distance to fascinate the reader to dynamically construct his cognitive logic and attitudes towards the events.The Third Chapter explicates the aesthetic effects that microscopic narrative techniques produce. The author employs these figures of speech to alter the distance between the reader and the text. The analysis of symbolism and irony provides the multiple explanations of the text to imply American decline and existential condition of modern people. Thus aesthetic ideas of the author are revealed.From the above analysis of Rabbit Is Rich based on Booth’s theory of rhetorically oriented distance, the thesis comes to a conclusion that the charm of the novel ascribes greatly to the harmonious interaction between the author, the reader and characters, which is realized through the skillful control of narrative distance. Updike’s technological narrative experiment successfully shapes his output of aesthetic ideas and affects the reader’s cognitive and emotional response towards the systematic story. Thus the themes are developed and the aesthetic effects of the novel are ameliorated.