Rabbit, Run | Themes
Updike establishes a central theme of the novel in the epigraph, a quotation from French philosopher and mathematician Pascal: " . . . the motions of Grace, the hardness of the heart; external circumstances." Rabbit, the star athlete, has mastered the motions of grace, but he also yearns for the grace of God, and his search for satisfaction in life is, in large part, religious questing. It is the hardness of Rabbit's heart, usually accompanied by sexual frustration, and the messy external circumstances of his life that ultimately come between him and justification for his sins. Until the...
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