John Updike

A detailed Summary of John Updike

The spring of 1932, a child was born on a small farm in the hills of Pennsylvania. He would grow up yearning to see what was outside of his tiny existence and his life would eventually take him to the best schools in the country, and then to one of the most prominent magazines in the world. Although as a child, John Updike lived in a fairly sheltered world but experienced and learned much about what was happening around him through reading. Mr. Updike's most influential readings came from the likes of Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, and P.G. Wodehouse (Pritchard 12). After a promising up- bringing, John Updike chose to attend Harvard University after learning of the well-respected school newspaper, the Harvard Lampoon, which was published there. Updike spent some time in England but eventually settled down in Massachusetts where he began his full-time career as a writer.

One of the most interesting points about John Updikes career is that he wrote about and analyzed many different topics from the oddest to the most ordinary. His writings were influenced by the time periods in which they were written and exposed many controversial subjects that were not highly publicized at the time. Such as one of his first

Not only has John Updike been recognized as a profoundly successful writer of novels, but he has also acquired some recognition as a poet. The Carpentered Hen, the first of his poetry collections, is a fifty-five-poem compilation dealing with a vast array of subjects. Updike creates a comic style that is matched with his intellect and joyous attitude towards his writings (Greiner 5). The first poem in the collection deals with Updike poking fun at the outrageous expense of a Rolls Royce. He relates the fact that "Meetings that make history are only a dime a dozen," but do those meetings make up for the inherently high price for such products (Greiner 8)? The next poem is not so funny and deals with the passing of a young athlete's youth and ability. The first word of the poem, "Once," summarizes the sentiment throughout the story (Greiner 9). What was "Once" had was lost, and what was "Once," his life, is now someone elses. Although this collection, along with his others, did not make much of an impact on the literary world, Updike grew as a writer and found new ways to "save language from cliche and jargon by illustrating how delightfully it can be used," (Greiner 27).

The next novel in the series Rabbit Is Rich was published in 1981 and Updike won a Pulitzer Prize for his efforts. In this edition, Rabbit works as a car salesman during the gas shortage of the late seventies (Pritchard 284). The shortage was a very significant part of the social and economic aspect of the seventies, and as before, Updike uses his writings to discuss the impact of such an event on an average person.

Updike's writings deal with the core of human experience. He had such an exciting and interesting childhood that almost all of his stories retells some event that occurred years before. His writings also deal with human emotion and how it affects the lives of his characters. A list of social lessons can be taken from his stories, and the impact of these lessons on his characters is always clearly evident. Theses works evoke the human spirit and explain much about the relationships that are shared by many.

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Approximate Word count = 1488
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels