Rabbit, Run | Techniques
Updike employs the present tense in this novel, a powerful literary technique which was somewhat unusual for the time. The sense is that readers are living Rabbit's life along with him, that no one knows when and where this running will lead. This technique establishes an immediacy that pulls the reader along, as in the opening: "Boys are playing basketball around a telephone pole with a backboard bolted to it. Legs, shouts." And of course, in the conclusion: ". . . he runs. Ah: runs. Runs." Movement is a central theme of the novel, and there would be precious little movement in "... he...
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