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Separating (1975)

• John Updike

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John Updike (b.1932)

• One of the most prolific American writers working
  today, famous for his Rabbit novels covering 4
  decades Rabbit, Run (1950s), Rabbit Redux
  (1960s), Rabbit Is Rich (1970s), Rabbit at Rest
  (1980s)
• Born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, small town
  that is basis of his Olinger stories an only
  child
• Attended Harvard, then studied art in England
• Worked for New Yorker magazine, then settled in
  Ipswich, Massachusetts

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John Updike (b.1932)

• Other novels The Centaur (1964), about high
  school teacher Couples (1968), about marriage
  and adultery The Witches of Eastwick, fantasy
  about modern-day New England witches (also film
  musical) Rogers Version (1986), about a
  theologian Terrorist (2006), a post-Sept. 11
  novel
• In total, over 60 books many novels, 6 books of
  poetry, a play, many essays

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Family Conflict

• Modern marriage and separation
• Father leaving the family his ambivalence
• Examination of middle class life house, yard,
  tennis court
• Telling the 4 children their unique reactions
• Special focus on relationship between father and
  sons

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Opening

• Maples separation contrasts with
• Nature the only stain in Nature (2268)
• Home improvements new tennis court the Maples
  had observed how often, among their friends,
  divorce followed a dramatic home improvement
  (2269)
• Separation has been long discussed and is
  decided they story is about how to do it

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Richard

• The center of consciousness
• Separation is his idea theres another woman. He
  is in love (2269) with a woman in town he hopes
  to marry (see 2275)
• However, he dreads telling the children In his
  sealed heart he hoped the day would never come
  (2269)
• Ironically, the process of separating brings him
  closer to Joan Guiltily, he realized he did not
  feel separated (2273)

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Joan

• We see her from Richards perspective
• Separation is not her idea, but she is resigned
  to it she cooperates and even supports him
• She insists on Richard handling it responsibly
  Joans plan was exact. . . . (2269)
• Her sarcasm and protests suggest her feelings
  your wonderful departure (2269) you made it
  look as though I was kicking you out

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Symbols Barriers/Lock

• All spring Richard had been morbidly conscious
  of insides and outsides, of barriers and
  partitions (2270) barriers between
• Richard Joan and the truth
• Past and future
• Telling the children and his new life
• Inside and outside of house battening down the
  house against his absence the lock

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Symbols Barriers/Lock

• Finally, Richard cannot separate himself from the
  emotion of separating
• The partition between himself and the tears
  brokefrom the image of Judith as their first
  baby
• The tears would not stop leaking through they
  came not through a hole that could be plugged but
  through a permeable spot in a membrane
• Tears become new barrier, a shield, against his
  family

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Language Euphemisms of Separation

• it was a separation for the summer, an
  experiment. She and Daddy both agreed it would be
  good for them they needed space and time to
  think they liked each other but did not make
  each other happy enough, somehow (2271)
• We want to see how it feels. For some years now,
  we havent been doing enough for each other
  (2275)
• No mention of third person (2273) avoiding
  issue of divorce

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Language Childrens Responses

• Like their parents explanation of the
  separation, the childrens responses to it often
  hide or distort their true feelings
• Children use sarcasm and melodrama to cloak their
  feelings

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Judith

• Oldest, a woman now, just back from
  study-abroad in England
• too energetic, too sophisticated exhalation of
  cigarette
• Imitating her mothers factual tone, but too
  cool, Judith says I think its silly. You
  should either live together or get divorced
  (2271)

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Margaret

• Age 13, also called Bean
• Looks as if into a shopwindow at something she
  covetedat her father, a crystalline heap of
  splinters and memories
• She had long expected it. Her response is the
  faintly dramatized exclamation Oh, no-oh!

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John

• Age 15. Asks Why is Daddy crying? (2271)
• Later What do you care about us? he boomed.
  Were just little things you had (2272)
• Drunk, he lights matches, puts cigarette in mouth
• Later still, keeps shouting Im O.K. No sweat
  (2273)

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John

• Richard takes John into yard, to soft green rise
  glorious in the sun
• Moment of honesty John not happy with school
• Richard tries to make too much of the moment, to
  prolong it (2273)so the moment closes

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Richard, Jr.

• Age 17 first son, called Dickie Of the four
  children Dickie was most nearly his conscience
  (2273) he is moderate and reasonable (2274)
• Telling him is a black mountain for Richard
• Richard to Dickie My father would have died
  before doing this to me. He has dumped the
  mountain on the boy or on his conscience?
  (2275)
• Response calm, but stunned doesnt slam door,
  but sound is sickening to Richard (2275)

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Richard, Jr.

• Father goes to say goodnight Richard kisses his
  father and asks Why?
• Richards question is the crucial, intelligent
  one that goes through the barrier It was a
  whistle of wind in a crack, a knife thrust, a
  window thrown open on emptiness. The white face
  was gone, the darkness was featureless. Richard
  had forgotten why (2276)

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Symbol Moonlight

• Richards pursuer
• On road when Richard drives to pick up Dickie a
  diaphanous companion, flickering in the leaves
  along the roadside, haunting his rearview mirror
  like a pursuer (2274)
• When Joan stood, an inexplicable lightthe
  moon?outlined her body through the nightie
  (2275)

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Separating as Picture of American Middle Class
Life

• Domestic life Big homes, yards, tennis court
  (status symbol) divorce is common
• Recreation golf course rock concert in city
• Public space Downtown at night a gang of
  T-shirted kids on the steps of the bank a bar
  (2274)
• Economy 1970s energy crisis shortages and long
  lines problem of fueling American material life
• Religion Church is a gutted fort (2275)