Аннотация

The article addresses the issue of American middle class cultural values through the prism of John Updike’s tetralogy about Rabbit «Rabbit Run» (1960). «Rabbit Redux» (1971), «Rabbit is Rich» (1982), «Rabbit at Rest» (1990). The Rabbit books offer the story of an ordinary man-Harry Angstrom, nicknamed Rabbit-from Brewer, Pa. The tetralogy follows him at decade long intervals from 1959 when he is 26 to 1989. Rabbit becomes the writer’s «ticket to America», a way of seeing the country through a set of American cultural and moral values that have undergone certain transformation within 30 years. The 60s confuse Harry, the 70s depress him and the 80s finish him off. The tetralogy describes the perils of American suburbia: failed parents, failed children and the rat race of filling empty lives with material possessions. The hero’s occasional confrontation with his milieu reflects the complexity of current social and cultural situation in the US in terms of its middle class value orientation.