earticle

영어

Since the first of his novel, The Poorhouse Fair (1959), John Hoyer Updike has made many other publications. Among these publications has been the Rabbit Series that had been created over a cycle of 10 years and they are all recognized as the criticism of the late 20th century American society. One reason the series were so recognized by many literary scholars was because it had described the agony and conflict within the American home and the life of the middle class people. From the end of the 1950's to that of the 1980's, the character of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, has been an example of these conflicting and agonizing lifestyles of the late American Society. It has also shown the political, social and cultural changes of the late 20th century. Harry Angstrom, the hero of the Rabbit Series, represents the reality of human being struggling for existence and survival in the American society. It may be somewhat dangerous to understand the world of Updike's wide and various works with the limited theme of alienation. However, it should be noted that the aspect of alienation from the trend of existential philosophy has been a great influence on the human life and by the complexity and diversified mass of society since the Second World War. This study will describe aspects of existence that Harry, the hero of the Rabbit Series, feels through his behavior and consciousness in the modern American society. This study will examine the self-centered existence, experienced by Harry, in Rabbit, Run. In Rabbit, Run, Harry is in the existential dilemma. That is, he is intellectually and statically alienated from society and from home. This may be a result of the self-centered existence. The consciousness of his existence seems to be more severe due to the anxiety and fears from his fall from class position. As he becomes more excessive with the existential self-consciousness, Harry's feeling of existence becomes deeper and more severe. Updike portrays the types of changing middle-class family, the fall of the home and the corruption of the American society in the late 20th century. In the Rabbit Series, the author describes man's fears, anxieties, emptiness, frustrations, corruptions and destructions. Man's desire and loneliness in all human relations are related to Harry Angstrom and shows how the existence acts in the frustrations of life and death and assertiveness of the family and home.