On Suburbia

 Starting this semester’s work, we commence with Updike’s 1960 novel, Rabbit, Run. One of his early works and the one that helped him win acclaim because it began the Rabbit series. One of the themes this novel deals with is suburbia; or more specifically how the 1950’s generation dealt with suburban living.

This topic requires some background, as the economy boomed after World War II, more and more middle class Americans moved away from cities and into suburban bedroom communities. They built single family homes on predetermined lots, had a lawn for their children to play within, and a garage to store the great chrome festooned Chrysler Newport or Ford Mainline that the family used for transportation. This type of lifestyle can seem idyllic to some. The peace, security and general comfort that a suburban home can provide is a pleasing quality to many people. Even your author, who saddled with a fair amount of college debt and a poor job market, would give a great amount to have his own home in Westerville or New Albany. Living in my own two story home and driving a new Chrysler or Jeep would seem just about perfect to me.  However, to Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom or Richard Yate’s Frank Wheeler in Revolutionary Road, suburban living and all of its trappings is something to be reviled and disdained.

One of the factors for this that Prof. Myers and I discussed is what I will call the “Traumatized Veteran Theory.” This premise considers that as a large majority of the men, both in fiction and real life, from the 1950’s were veterans of World War II. They won the glorious cause by beating Hitler and Tojo, sparked a manufacturing and research boom back home, and were touted as liberators and the most powerful military force in countries abroad.  Because of their wartime experience being adrenaline packed and stimulating to the senses, the minutiae of mowing the lawn, listening to the wife and playing with the kids is boring. It is so boring, that they yearn for more excitement in their lives. But these men are beholden to the trappings of middle class life that they wish to dispose of. If we consider the 1950’s as the “conformist decade” where everything and everyone in White middle class society was the same, men were not faced with hard choices. Their most pressing choices in life were Ford or GM and scotch or bourbon. Notwithstanding that with either choice the man will end up with a car or whiskey, his life was largely routine and bland. Coming from a world of vicious jungle combat or French whores or North African heat, these men were not stimulated by the comfortable lives with homemaker wives and sons playing Little League. Being affected by war makes these men disinterested in civilian living, but the facts that they won’t step outside of the norm and that they have a duty to their families to provide means that they will continue to lead lives of quiet desperation and fulfillment

I am attaching a link to Supertramp's song " Take The Long Way Home" as an accompanying piece to the desperation and sadness these men felt. 

In all academic study, there is a central question. Every class, every research topic and every theme paper strive to answer a question. In this instance, the topic for discussion is John Updike. But more specifically, we are studying a selection of his novels. These novels have been chosen and are being researched for their value and input into American culture. So, the question we are answering goes as such: “How has the writing of John Updike affected or impacted American culture?” Further, we are considering his impact on American thought and ideals. The topics that Updike commented on, and we will be following more closely, are suburbia, sex and the middle class.

I am Cory Conrad, a Senior English student at OSU and an avid reader. I have enjoyed everything that I have read by Updike and this independent study is a privilege and joy for me. Rather than write a long and tedious thesis paper about Updike, I have chosen to write blog posts to convey what we discuss to a larger audience. Astute readers will notice that the title of this blog comes from the last words Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom says in Rabbit at Rest. Hopefully, like Rabbit’s death, readers will find that this blog is not so bad.

With me in this study, leading as an advisor, mentor and knowledgeable literary man is Professor David G. Myers of The Ohio State University. We will be advancing our knowledge through discussion of the books and tying the stories within together with popular media, other texts and historical analyses so that we can deeper understand who Updike was as a writer, what he was saying and whom he was saying it to.

Thanks for reading and look back soon for more posts.