Search for Identity in John Updike`s Rabbit Novels

John Updike is known for a sustained exposition of modern American society with its complex ironies.The focus in the present study is on the Rabbit Quartet as a saga of America`s middle class life in the context of an individual`s struggle against his social milieu and his search for identity which are at center of Rabbit novels.Caught between desire and necessity, Rabbit represents the archetypal American male in search of meaning and definition.He is Updike`s prototypical American character who embodies the fears and hopes, vices and virtues of his own age.The book examines how Rabbit despite being a product of American society continues to distance himself from it by being alive to a rather personal but a vital sense of religion.The other novels and short stories of Updike serve as a backdrop and a point of comparison as the study attempts to explore the changing dynamics of man, society,religion and ethics.