t that takes place in his head. He concludes shortly thereafter that "Goodness lies inside, there is nothing outside. . . . He feels his insides as very real suddenly". These passages reveal Rabbit's final flight into the "pathetic emptiness of himself"; the circular movement in the novel becomes tighter and tighter until, finally, Rabbit runs completely into the center of his own consciousness.The structure of Rabbit, Run shows that Rabbit never breaks from the hopeless vacuity of his life; he never finds the straight path that he seeks. Yet, in the end, "he runs: Ah: runs". The conclusion suggests at the least an ephemeral hope, and in the most generous reading, an ecstatic proclamation. After all that Rabbit has endured, he persists in his hopeful vision. This reveals his creator, Updike, to be highly affirmative of the indomitability of the human spirit. Like a pebble in a spring stream, Rabbit is, by his own designs and by those of others, tossed to and fro. He endures the death of his newborn baby, the rejection of his mother, the ineffectual and foolish machinations of the Reverend Eccles, and the loss of Tothero who, behind his mother, had the second greatest influence on his life. Finally, he loses contact with the child he conceived with Ruth. In spite of this, Rabbit retains hope in a future in which he will find the straight path that appeases his appetite and appeals to his sense of orderliness and peace....
