3. A brief survey of Updike's engagement with race and then some reflections.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. Growing up in small town & rural Pennsylvania, Updike seems to have grown up in nearly all-white environment.
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5. First time Updike had any extended contact with blacks and other non-whites was at Harvard.
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6. Updike's story "The Christian Roomates" touches glancingly on social difficulties faced by black students in 1950s Harvard.
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7. In 1950s New York, Updike of course encountered a much more racially cosmopolitan society, which made him uneasy.
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8. Updike's 1957 story "A Gift From the City" can be read as an account of white flight: husband fearful of blacks in city.
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9. The 1960 story "A Doctor's Wife" reflection of uneasy privilege of upper class whites vacationing in Caribbean.
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10. Updike's 1st wife Mary active supporter of Civil Rights movement. Updike not opposed but his conservative temperament caused friction.
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11. Updike was very conscious that the was winner in the American system - "lucky". Like most winners, uneasy about change.
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12. At civil rights marches, Updike's unease expressed itself with mockery -- he adopted minstrel accents. (See "Marching Through Boston")
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13. Updike's most ambitious 1960s grappling with race is of course "Rabbit Redux" (1971 but set 1969).
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Replying to @HeerJeet
14. In "Rabbit Redux" white middle american Everyman meets hippy feminist and black power radical.
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15. Begley has a high opinion of "Rabbit Redux"; I think it's a disaster but a fruitful one.
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