Run On, Little Rabbit...

Run On, Little Rabbit...


I love this book. I have read it before as well, and honestly I was pulling for Witches of Eastwick, but John was impatient and pulled the trigger on me. I agree with the general assessment of Rabbit, that he is cold and impulsive and generally an asshole, but whereas John has mentioned that he can't identify with the character, I can 100% identify with the character. Rabbit's lived half of his life and he knows that the best part is over, and it fucking blows. Up to this point he's done everything he's supposed to have done, according to those societal rules we take for granted, and he's followed that standard arch of life - given up his dreams to settle down and get married. There're so many things that you just do before you even realize that you had a choice, and I feel like this is the trap that Rabbit has fallen into. I compare it to going to college-- the idea that I didn't have to go to college never even entered my mind. I thought that if you didn't go to college and graduate that somehow you were a failure, and the simple fact is that this is not true. I feel like that's where Rabbit is, his entire life everyone else has been making his choices for him, and then one day he's just like, "Fuck this." Maybe, had I not been so blinded by other people's expectations of what I was supposed to do, I would've spent a few years driving around the country playing music and doing different shit instead of going straight to college, but I felt so much pressure that I didn't even consider it as an option, and sometimes I regret that. Rabbit is full of regret, and I think it makes him a dick.

I will admit that Rabbit is selfish, and that I don't feel like anyone should ever try to act like him. He is not a role model, and he is not an anti-hero - he's just this selfish guy who's kinda depressed because he doesn't feel like he's in control of his life, and when he tries to take control he turns into a giant dick, and worse, he doesn't really know what to do with himself. It's not like he leaves and does something romantic - like travel the world or compose a great artistic work, or something like that- he leaves his wife and shacks up with some other woman. Partially, I think the reason is because Rabbit is just simply not that bright. I mean, did you ever stop and think while you were reading this about just how whitetrash this shit is? It's totally daytime TV. I think Updike wanted to shock his generation by portraying Rabbit as this total asshole who does not give in to all these conventions of the time, but it makes him unlikeable. I think an interesting comparison is to the main character of One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - RP McMurphy. He's another character who's struggling against control, but you end up loving him. He is a true anti-hero in that sense, and his example eventually leads to the Chief escaping and becoming free, so there is a positive payoff, but in Rabbit's case there is nothing redeeming about him, he learns nothing, and in the end there's only death. But RP and Rabbit are essentially both trying to escape from the same thing, they're both fighting for to live on their terms. That admirable quality that RP McMurphy posses is totally unadmirable in Rabbit.

The other thing that I loved about this book was the sex - or, more accurately, how Updike seemed to focus on how sex and power and control are all intertwined. I see more similarities here between One Flew and Rabbit, Run. I think both Updike and Ken Kesey were trying to make a comment about how post WWII America had become emasculated. After the war it was like no one wanted to disturb the peace, everyone was trying to avoid conflicts both domestically and abroad. You got crazy psycho Nazi bitch Nurse Ratchet in One Flew and then you've got Janice and Ruth in Rabbit. Obviously Rachet and Janice and Ruth are not the same, but the dynamic that exists seems to be very similar. Rachet is the symbol of matriarchal control that RP McMurphy, who is the quintessential Alpha Male, rebels against. In the same way, to Rabbit, Janice and Ruth seem to hold him back. The blow job scene is totally fucked, but it's all about power. Whoever has the power is in control. Sex compels Rabbit to get married in the first place, and sex compels Rabbit to shack up with Ruth - Rabbit is a slave to his sexual desire, and because of this I feel like he thinks that he is a slave to women, and that's why he hates them so much and treats them so poorly. It's even the same with the preacher's wife. I feel like he was trying to turn that dynamic around when he forced Ruth to give him the blow job. Rabbit tries, and tries, and tries but he is simply unable to take control.

I feel like Rabbit is a more realistic rendering of a character like RP McMurphy. RP, had he not been limited to the insane asylum, probably would've been an irresponsible, womanizing prick just like Rabbit. The things that make RP strong in his caged environment are the same things that make Rabbit so weak in free society. There's something here about the need for balance where sex and power are concerned. Sex is power is control. So is Rabbit a prick, or is he the way he is because he's an Alpha Male stuck in a matriarchal society? I don't know, and I think that's the point. Just when you think shit is finally going to go well, bang, Rabbit bails again and the baby dies. Maybe the point is that there's nothing Rabbit can do. He is totally and utterly dominated by his sexual urges... Maybe running is the only option he's got left.