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This short story written by Updike tells the story of the Richard and Joan Maple, a married couple that struggles as they must come to tell their children of their separation. They negotiate and decide on how best to inform the children, but nothing goes according to plan after the children find out. Richard is able to take a step back and look at his relationship with his children as a whole and realizes how dis-involved and selfish he has been. In the end, the children are accepting and understanding, and are able to hold themselves together much better than the parents themselves can. Many aspects of modernism are shown as tradtional values of the average American family are tested.

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Similar to the first criticism, Stephan H. Webb  also concludes that Updike's stories are inconsequential.  Webb states that John Updike is so successful in copious of literary forms, such as memoirs, poems,  and even plays but few scholars have the  motivation of learning his impact on American imagination.  Thus resulting in the declination of Updike's influence in modernism.  Nicholson Baker confesses that in the story of U and I (1991),  spends more time "thinking about the idea of Updike" rather than reading of him.  One pro of Webb's review on Updike is that he approves him idea in defending the value of freedom.

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The Carpentered Hen (1958), his first actual work of literature , is a verse collection . a year later his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair (1959), an allegory about the inhabitants of a home for the old people , was met with much critical high Archy . this made him aspire to write numerous short stories , The Same Door (1959), also won a ton of gratitude. however he is most known for his novels, especially the acclaimed “Rabbit” series. These books—including Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981; Pulitzer Prize, 1982), and Rabbit at Rest (1990; Pulitzer Prize, 1991)—tell the life story of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a man who sells cars , he is an errant husband, and former high-school basketball star, as he adjusts to the changing spectrum of life and disappointments of life in a modern-day suburban wasteland.

other works of literature include ,Of the Farm (1965) is a short intense look at a man torn between the present and past , but from the point of view from his mom and lover. Couples (1968), noted as remarkably frank about sex for its time, probes the world of suburban married couples in the mid-1960s. Bech: A Book (1970) is a collaboration of 7 works , the first of three works revolving around a world-weary Jewish writer and literary celebrity. The Witches of Eastwick (1984), a satirical view of women’s liberation, was also made into a well-received 1987 film. Other works included The Coup (1979), a novel set in an imaginary African country; and Roger’s Version (1986), dealing with the theme of religious faith.

Genres: he sticks with literary realism throughout his career mainly in part of the modernist style in which he chose to write .

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In short, the literary criticisms from Modern Critical Views for John Updike, edited by Harold Bloom, were bland.  One critic, John W. Aldridge, noted that he could work well in an old-fashioned convention, though that is all he could do.  Many of the superficial effects was a failed attempt to discuss the important qualities of modern will. John Updike seems to have all the characteristic features to manipulate an interesting story, though he manages to think that “contemporary characters”  and “mythological figures” would conjure up a meaningful story (Aldridge, 11).  In the first of many reviews, Aldridge finished his statement explaining how Updike has “none” of the “attributes” to associate with “major literary talent” (Aldridge, 12).

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Arts: A Conversation with John Updike | The New York Times

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In October 2008, John Updike spoke with Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, about the craft of fiction and the art of writing. Subscribe to the Times Video newsletter for free and get a handpicked selection of the best videos from The New York Times every week: http://bit.ly/timesvideonewsletter Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n Watch more videos at: http://nytimes.com/video --------------------------------------------------------------- Want more from The New York Times?

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1. “”What do you care about us?” he boomed. “We’re just little things you had.””

A main focus in modernism is the aspect of a new age and a new generation that is coming into full scope. Meaning that in modernism you have a change from traditional values. Which is just is what occurring as this scene unfolds. First you have the two parents getting a divorce which wouldn't have been acceptable in a different period of time. Secondly, you have the son going off on the father which originally would never been acceptable in the American household. Both of these examples perfectly depict the straying away from traditional values in modernist literature.

2. “Why. It was a whistle of wind in a crack, a knife thrust, a window thrown open on emptiness.”

Additionally, in modernist writing another change in literature occurs which is straying away from the individual. Basically, the main individual in the passage is going to feel some sort of loneliness or just have crappy things happen to them for no apparent reason. We see this happening in the very last section of the short story where our main character richard is miserable yet he can't even remember why he is miserable however; the individual will remain suffering.

3. “The white face was gone, the darkness was featureless. Richard had forgotten why.”

Finally the last thing all modernist writers in this time period made sure to do was leave the reader with a cliffhanger. These few words are how the story ends you have no evidence of anyway the characters will feel afterwards. Modernist writers left it up for the reader to decide the characters fates as follows. John Updike does a great job of leaving the reader thinking and a little flustered afterwards.

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John Hoyer Updike was born on March 18, 1932 in Pennsylvania. His father was a middle school math teacher and his mother was a writer, who's short stories were published in the New Yorker. He was his high school class valedictorian, and later attended Harvard Law School then spent a year at the Ruskin School of Drawing at Oxford University, looking for a career in graphic arts. He moved to a career in writing which spanned from the 1950's to his death in 2009. He wrote mostly short stories about small- town and middle class American life in the late twentieth century. He published 66 books, his first being "The Carpentered Hen" in 1958. He also wrote essays, book reviews, and art and literary criticisms, making him unmatched among his contemporaries when it comes to variety.