“Separating” (1975)

John Updike

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

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); Roger’s 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

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

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

Richard

The center of consciousness Separation is his idea: there’s 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)

Joan

We see her from Richard’s 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:

“Joan’s 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”

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

Symbols: Barriers/Lock

Finally, Richard cannot separate himself from the emotion of separating: “The partition between himself and the tears

broke”—from 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

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 haven’t been doing enough for each other” (2275)

No mention of “third person” (2273); avoiding issue of divorce

Language: Children’s Responses Like their parent’s explanation of the

separation, the children’s responses to it often hide or distort their true feelings

Children use sarcasm and melodrama to cloak their feelings

Judith

Oldest, “a woman” now, just back from study-abroad in England

“too energetic, too sophisticated exhalation” of cigarette

“[I]mitating her mother’s factual tone,” but “too cool,” Judith says: “I think it’s silly. You should either live together or get divorced” (2271)

Margaret

Age 13, also called Bean Looks “as if into a shopwindow at something

she coveted—at her father, a crystalline heap of splinters and memories”

She had “long expected it.” Her response is the “faintly dramatized exclamation”: “‘Oh, no-oh!’”

John

Age 15. Asks “Why is Daddy crying?” (2271) Later: “What do you care about us?” he

boomed. “We’re just little things you had” (2272)

Drunk, he lights matches, puts cigarette in mouth

Later still, keeps shouting: “I’m O.K. No sweat” (2273)

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

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; doesn’t slam door, but sound is “sickening” to Richard (2275)

Richard, Jr.

Father goes to say goodnight; Richard kisses his father and asks “Why?”

Richard’s 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)

Symbol: Moonlight

Richard’s 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 light—the moon?—outlined her body through the nightie” (2275)

“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)