The Runner and Rabbit, Run

A common theme in The Runner by Cynthia Voigt and Rabbit, Run by John Updike is the need for a person to find his or her place in life. Most people find themselves at a particular juncture in life by default. They are so busy running away from people or circumstances that they do not consciously map out their life's journey.

As Rabbit learns from a dusty farmer who pumps gas on his first escape, "The only way to get somewhere, you know, is to figure out where you're going before you go there" (Updike 32). Rabbit fails to heed this advice. He admits this when he is questioned about why he deserted his wife Janice, by Jack Eccles, the minister. Rabbit replies, "I don't really have a plan, I'm sort of playing it by ear" (Updike 99). Because he has no rhyme or reason to his actions, by the end of the story Rabbit is essentially in the same circumstances as when he began. Rabbit fails to find contentment or fulfillment in life because he just prefers to let things happen, and insists on running away when the situation gets too tough to bear: " . . . he doesn't like people who manage things. He likes things to happen of themselves" (Updike 281).

Unlike Rabbit, Bullet comes to the realization that without a plan in life, people just go from one "box" to another. Toward the end of his story, he decides to join the Army as a means of escape from home. Bullet knows that the discipline of the Army will represent another box for him: "You didn't get out of one box wi

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girlfriend he has is Lou: "Lou had a crush on Bullet that she didn't bother to conceal . . . He didn't mind her, much" (Voigt 20). Rabbit, after leaving Janice, strikes up a casual relationship with Ruth. Although he is only mildly attracted to her, his words reveal how much he longs for the kind of relationship that he once fantasized would be his and Janice's: "The thing about her [Ruth] is she's good-natured . . . In all the green world nothing feels as good as a woman's good nature" (Updike 89). Janice has long since lost her good nature, and this is presumably why Rabbit has deserted her, but he still longs for the intimacy of the marital bond. In their first sexual encounter, Rabbit tells Ruth to pretend that they are married. Because Bullet cannot make the ultimate escape like Rabbit has, he deals with his oppressive situation with his father by asserting his independence in minor means of rebellion. One way is with his chosen hairstyle. Bullet's father demands that his son cut his hair. Bullet spends a considerable amount of time mulling over exactly how he will respond to his father's demands just to spite him. Bullet considers getting his hair trimmed a bare quarter inch, to satisfy the letter, but not the s

Category: Literature - T