The Rabbit Angstrom Novels: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: John Updike

First published: Rabbit, Run, 1960; Rabbit Redux, 1971; Rabbit Is Rich, 1981; Rabbit at Rest, 1990

Genre: Novels

Locale: Mt. Judge and Brewer, Pennsylvania, and Florida

Plot: Domestic realism

Time: 1959–1989

Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a former high school basketball star. Now in his mid-twenties, he is married, is a father, and holds a mediocre sales job. Plagued by feelings of bore-dom and alienation, he abandons his pregnant wife for a quasi-religious quest whose goal he intuits but cannot define: “some-thing that wants me to find it.” At the funeral of his second child, he flees his wife, Janice Angstrom, for the third and, he believes, final time.

Janice Springer Angstrom, a middle-class housewife. Like her husband, she is in her mid-twenties, has average intelligence, and finds her life very boring. Her escape is alcohol. In drunken grief and postnatal depression, she allows her infant daughter, Rebecca, to drown in a bath.

Ruth Leonard, a sometime prostitute. Also in her mid-twenties, she meets Rabbit shortly after he abandons Janice and allows him to move in with her because she appreciates his charm and mildness and the fact that he is searching. She informs Rabbit that she is pregnant with his child, and he leaves her.

Jack Eccles, an Episcopalian minister. He seeks to effect a reconciliation of the Angstroms marriage. His methods involve more psychology than theology, and he uses frequent golf games with Rabbit to make his persuasions.

Fritz Kruppenbach, a Lutheran minister. A stern man with a heavy German accent, he appears only once, in a crucial scene in which he lectures Jack Eccles and calls his counseling methods “Devil s work.”

Mrs. Horace Smith,anoldwidow.Mrs.Smithseightacres of gardens become Rabbit s workplace, and she shows herself to be a quick-witted woman who takes a liking to Rabbit, telling him that he has the gift of life.

Nelson Angstrom, the son of Rabbit and Janice. Two-year-old Nelson excites frequent guilt in Rabbit. During Janice s maternity ward stay, Rabbit takes care of him.

Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, now a linotype operator for the Verity Press. Thirty-six years old and fat around the middle, he has become a conservative cynic, leery (but curious) about African Americans, a hawkish defender of the Vietnam War, and resigned to his humdrum life in the Brewer, Pennsylvania, suburb of Penn Villas. When his wife, Janice, moves in with her lover, Harry allows Jill, a white teenage runaway, and Skeeter, a black fugitive, to move in with him and his son. After neighbors burn down his house, killing Jill, Harry helps Skeeter escape and reconciles with Janice.

Janice Springer Angstrom, Harry s wife, who works at her father s Toyota dealership, Springer Motors. A short, dark-eyed woman hardened by life, she has aged well during the 1960 s and has acquired a stylish gypsy flair and a penchant for the latest slang. Lacking in self-confidence until her affair, she is, in her words, searching for a valid identity while harboring guilt about the death of her second child. The last time she sleeps with her lover, she saves his life.

Charles (Charlie) Stavros, a bachelor who works at Springer Motors and has an affair with Janice. A broad, hairy-shouldered Greek American with tinted glasses, a receding hair-line, and prominent sideburns, he has had a heart murmur since childhood and harbors liberal political opinions. Janice finds him sensitive and caring, whereas Harry calls him a bleeding-heart peacenik. Not entirely comfortable with long-term commitments, he willingly succumbs to the charm of Harry s sister, Mim, precipitating the termination of his relationship with Janice.

Nelson Angstrom, Harry s thirteen-year-old son. A small, dark-complexioned, delicate, impressionable adolescent with Janice s stubby fingers and shoulder-length hair, he is wary of life s unpredictable turns but anxious to learn its secrets. He, too, indiscriminately picks up the latest slang words and finds in Jill a sisterly soul mate. He blames Harry for Jill s death.

Earl Angstrom, Harry s father, who is close to retirement at Verity Press. A slim, thin-voiced, whiny codger with washed-out eyes and sour breath from a bad set of false teeth, he is a New Deal Democrat who admires Lyndon B. Johnson, Walt Disney, and the moon-walking astronauts. An opinionated meddler who enjoys an after-work beer with his son, he is aggrieved by his wife s illness and hopes that Harry will get his own house in order.

Mary Angstrom, Harry s sixty-five-year-old mother, who is afflicted with Parkinson s disease. She is gray-haired and loose-fleshed, like a well-cooked chicken, with hands knobbed with age. She utters epigrammatic pronouncements in partial sentences. She dislikes Janice and resents Nelson s resemblance to her, and she is the only person who understands Harry. Her advice is for him to leave Brewer and be adventurous and selfish like Mim.

Fred “Old Man” Springer, Harry s father-in-law, who owns Springer Motors. A wiry, hatchet-faced go-getter, set in his ways and angered over the tumultuous events of the 1960 s, he has rosy splotches on his cheeks and a salesman s smile made timid from years of sycophancy. He takes Nelson and Harry to minor-league baseball games and bores them with commentary about his latest gripes and prejudices.

Jill Pendleton, an eighteen-year-old runaway from Stonington, Connecticut. A chalky, small-boned, thin-faced, braless prep school dropout, with tired green eyes and an elongated nose, chin, and neck, she wears hippie clothes, sunbathes clad only in bikini panties, and negligently abuses her white Porsche. She has been mentally burned out since the death of her doting father. Fleeing a destructive relationship with a drug-pushing boyfriend, she becomes Harry s mistress and homemaker, transforming the tacky Angstrom house into a consciousness-raising commune. She takes orders like a dog and is transfixed by Skeeter, who she fears (prophetically) will destroy her. She dies when Harry's house is set aflame.

Hubert H. “Skeeter” Johnson, also known as Farnsworth, a black junkie. A skinny-ankled, five-foot, six-inch, 125-pound, self-styled “bad niggah,” he calls himself the black Jesus. After moving in with Harry, Nelson, and Jill, he proselytizes on black history and the war in Vietnam and turns them on to drugs. After informing Harry about the fire from a telephone booth, he escapes (with Harry s help) from town when authorities wrongly suspect him of arson.

Peggy Fosnacht, a false friend of Janice, estranged from her husband, Ollie. A walleyed former classmate of Harry, going to fat and aging poorly, she is sad and gropes clumsily with being a single parent. Telling Harry that he is too forgiving, she gets him to sleep with her the night his house burns down. Harry finds her sexually satisfying but rather pathetic in her needs.

Ollie Fosnacht, Peggy s husband, the owner of Chords ‘n Records. Never a family man, he likes to hang out with musicians in Philadelphia and ski in Aspen. He takes his son fishing and gives him stereo equipment, a minibike, a puppy, and other presents. He comes by the house to copulate with Peggy once in a while before deciding to get back together with her.

Billy Fosnacht, Nelson Angstrom s friend, fourteen years old. A curly-haired, pimply-faced, awkward youth, he blames his mother for his father s desertion and calls her a whore. He tells her what is happening at the Angstrom house, and this gossip gets back to Janice.

Mrs. Aldridge, Jill s mother, from Connecticut. She comes to Brewer to find out why Jill died. She attacks Harry to assuage her own guilt and asks for some memento of her daughter.

Mim Angstrom, Harry s thirty-year-old sister, a would-be model and mistress to Las Vegas gangsters. Looking like a West Coast swinger, she has a pale mouth and wears Egyptian-like makeup around her eyes to match her clownish clothes and tinted hair. Coming back home, she sleeps with Charlie Stavros to patch up Harry and Janice s marriage.

Pajasek, Harry s immediate boss at Verity Press, a short, bald man with bristling eyebrows. When the press jettisons its antiquated linotype process, he lays Harry off.

Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, now the manager of the successful Springer Motors. Rabbit, gone heavy and soft in his mid-forties, lives with his wife, Janice, at the home of her mother, Bessie Springer, and marvels at the thirty-five hundred dollars that he earns each month in salary and profits at the dealership he began to run after the death of Janice s father, Fred Springer. His contentment is broken by the arrival at the agency of a young woman whom he suspects of being his daughter from his 1959 affair with Ruth Leonard and by the unexpected return home from Colorado of his son Nelson, a college student. Rabbit seeks to learn the girl s identity, while, at home, he tries to defend his safe position by lobbying for Nelson s departure.

Janice Springer Angstrom, Rabbit s wife. In her mid-forties, Janice has become a sassy and self-confident woman, seemingly more clever and more adaptable than Rabbit. Throughout this female-dominated plot, she is the center of power, because Rabbit knows that his prosperity depends on her. It is she who suggests firing Charlie Stavros, her former lover, to create a vacancy at Springer Motors.

Nelson Angstrom, now a college student at Kent State University. Nelson, bored and directionless at college, wishes to quit his studies and join the Springer Motors staff. He, like his father before him, finds himself in trouble with women and at the ultimate crisis can only flee.

Teresa “Pru” Lubell Angstrom, Nelson s pregnant girlfriend. Pru, formerly a secretary at Kent State, is a quiet, solid, working-class woman. She comes to Pennsylvania and marries Nelson, and her approaching childbirth creates tension for him.

Webb Murkett, a businessman and country-club friend of Rabbit and Janice. Webb s money and age—something over fifty—make him a man of stature for Rabbit, who takes his advice seriously. Webb s name and his actions, such as sanctioning the Caribbean-holiday wife-swap, suggest a sinister force.

Ruth Leonard Byer, a farmer s widow and formerly Rabbit s lover. She denies that her daughter, Annabelle Byer, is her child by Rabbit, but her story is not entirely convincing.

Lucinda R. (Cindy) Murkett, Webb s third wife. “Still smelling of high school.” Cindy seems quite dull but frequently excites desire in Rabbit and represents to him a kind of bliss.

Bessie Springer, Janice s mother and half owner of Springer Motors. Her sharing of her house with Rabbit and Janice represents both her generosity and her desire for control. She favors Nelson being hired at the auto agency.

Charles (Charlie) Stavros, an auto salesman at Springer Motors. Formerly robust and now shrunk and wizened, Charles acts out Rabbit s fantasies by sleeping with Nelson s college friend Melanie and also agrees to step aside to make a job vacancy for Nelson.

Thelma Harrison, the wife of Rabbit s high school team-mate, Ronnie Harrison. Thelma, who is in her forties and suffers from lupus, is the most intelligent of the wives of Rabbit s social circle. She senses and appreciates the goodness in him, and she initiates him in an ironically scatological sexual encounter.

Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, now in semiretirement, spending half the year in Florida. He is overweight and cannot resist eating cholesterol-laden junk food. He has a heart attack, brought on by an attempt to rescue his granddaughter, Judy, during a boating accident. He is hospitalized and refuses a bypass operation. After a one-night sexual encounter with his daughter-in-law, he moves to his Florida condominium, where he lives a lonely life. He suffers a stroke while playing basketball with a boy he does not know. He is unable to communicate with family members when they arrive. He dies at the age of fifty-six.

Nelson Angstrom, who is embezzling from Springer Motors to support a cocaine habit. He agrees to enter a rehabilitation program, but not before Toyota withdraws its franchise. After rehabilitation, he intends to become a social worker, but he remains an unsympathetic character.

Janice Springer Angstrom, who attempts to blame Harry for Nelson s problems and leaves Nelson in charge of the auto dealership until it is too late. She and Nelson make decisions about the family business, leaving Harry out of the process. This is one of several ways in which the family prepares for life without Harry: Janice also occasionally talks about him in the past tense and takes courses in real estate.

Teresa “Pru” Lubell Angstrom, Harry s daughter-in-law. She will not let her husband sleep with her, as punishment for his drug abuse. Harry, depressed and demoralized, finds himself alone with her one night and takes her to bed. Janice finds out and demands that he confront his family; instead, he flees to his Florida condominium.