On The Sexual Relationships In John Updike's Rabbit Series

John Updike is one of the greatest writers in modern America. His rabbit series depicts Harry Angstorm's relationships with several women in different periods, revealing the situation of sexual relationships in the contemporary society of America. By depicting sexual plots clearly, Updike makes the readers feel disgusted and reconsider the relationships in the context, and try to find ways to a harmonious sexual relationship.This thesis will be divided into three chapters to explore the sexual relationships in the Rabbit series. The first chapter introduces the situation of the disharmonic relationships, which are mainly the sexual relationship under the dominance of men and sexual relationship after women's awakening. Harry is a man of male chauvinism and tried very hard to maintain his dominant position in Rabbit Run. In the face of his wife Janice's challenge to his male authority, he managed to conquer Ruth, to demonstrate the superiority of being a man. With the development of the feminist movement, women consciousness wakes, the status of women in the relationship improves gradually. With the development of the sexual revolution, women's sexual idea gets great liberated. However, this kind of change doesn't form the relationship of equality and harmony, on the contrary, makes sexual relationships more chaos.The second chapter emphasizes on analyzing the main reasons that lead to the disharmonic relationships. The thought that men can control women, is deeply rooted in history, women have been seen as the second place, and women also agreed by themselves. The development of the feminist movement made women aware of their existence, and looking for themselves actively, they changed much in both life and work. The feminist movement has brought great change in sex. Women are no longer ashamed to talk about sex and began to pursue the sexual gratification bravely, resulting in the sexual relationship without love. In addition, with the development of economy, people's sense of moral and values has been damaged, religious beliefs and ethics has been destroyed, however, hedonism and money worship is becoming popular. People are no longer control their own body, the phenomenon such as drug addiction and exchanging wives, can be seen everywhere, relationships become more complicated. As a realism writer, who is loyal to the history, Updike found these changes keenly, and shows in his works vividly.The third chapter discusses the ways to achieve harmonious sexual relationships. Firstly, summarizing hero and heroine's reflection on sexual relationships, which includes women's awakening of consciousness by against the unequal relationship actively and the men's passive changes to women's resistance. But, in Updike's views, self-reflection can't realize the idea of harmonious relationships. Through varieties of thought-provoking cases in his works, Updike inspires readers to think about how to construct the harmonious relationship and he also put forward his own ideas. Besides of self-reflection, in order to achieve harmonious sexual relationship, reconstructing the value system, getting salvation by love, loving themselves, the family and the God will also be needed.