Dealing with Death Through John Updike

Dealing with death through John Updike

Ordinary people are not often put into books, however, "prolific and acclaimed contemporary" author John Updike examines their lives with "intimate detail" (Krstovic). "many of John Updike's works... grew out of his own life and especially out of his relationship to a six-room sandstone farmhouse... Updike's mother was born in the house and died there" (Tuerk). One topic he examines in his books is how people cope with death. In a short stories of his entitled "The Cats," a man by the name of David travels to his mother's home after she dies. He constantly remembers the events with his mother from his past and they give him a sense of comfort in the difficult time he is facing. The next short story is "His Mother Inside Him," a story where Allen Dow realizes, by looking at events from his childhood, there is a part of his mother inside him. He forgets the death of his mother and compares his mother's actions with what he would have done. The third short story is "The Sandstone Farmhouse" where a man by the name of Joey prepares his late mother's house for sale. Again, he recalls the events from his childhood. These books share many common themes but one is strikingly obvious, coping with death. John Updike explores the theme death by focusing on the protagonist and how the character reverts to previous experiences as a way to cope with his grief.

One of John Updike's short stories that explores this theme is "His Mother Inside Him." In this story, Allen Dow's mother has died and the main character is remembering all the things about her and comparing them to his own life. After her death, Allen tries to find comfort by comparing his life to his mother's and the memories he has of her. O...

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...is friends, and the city life to which he was accustomed" (Tuerk). They made the move because it was where his mother had grown up. "Joey remembered the stove clearly; it was painted chocolate-brown, and stood on little bent legs on an asbestos sheet papered with imitation wood grain" (Updike, "The Sandstone Farmhouse," 107). The vivid imagery used just to describe a small stove is a testament to the intense and deep memories he recalls of the farmhouse and his mother. When he finds a flying squirrel, dead in the toilet, he is reminded of death, specifically that of his mother. The squirrel, "reminds him of his early days in the farmhouse and of the things he and other members of his family accomplished there" (Tuerk). Joey had many flashbacks to the farmhouse and his childhood because of his mother and he is able to cope with her death more easily by doing so way.