Carnal Transgression and Spiritual Quest in John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetralsogy

Abstract

This paper examines the complex intersection of physical transgression and metaphysical longing in John Updike’s Rabbit tetralogy Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest. It argues that Harry Rabbit Angstrom’s relentless, often destructive pursuit of carnal experience is not merely a symptom of moral failure or suburban boredom, but a misdirected spiritual quest for the numinous in a secularized post war America. Infused with Karl Barth’s neo orthodox theology and Søren Kierkegaard’s existential anxiety, Updike constructs Rabbit’s insatiable physical appetite as a clumsy, tragic search for grace. By analyzing the structural parallels between Rabbit’s sexual transgressions and his moments of existential crisis, this study demonstrates how the domestic and corporeal realities of the novels serve as the primary battlegrounds for spiritual survival. This present study contends that Updike uses the failing, aging body of his protagonist to illustrate the tragic paradox of the human condition the impossible desire to reconcile eternal spiritual longing with a finite, mortal anatomy.