Honors Thesis Archive
| Author | Megan Conkle |
|---|---|
| Title | A Civil Conversation With Death: A Study of Spiritual Anxiety in John Updike's Short Fiction |
| Department | English |
| Advisor | Michael Mattison |
| Year | 2014 |
| Honors | Departmental Honors |
| Full Text | View Thesis (207 KB) |
| Abstract | This essay explores the theme of death as presented in John Updike's short fiction. Short stories from the collections Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories (1962), Trust Me (1987), and My Father's Tears (2009) represent Updike's own evolving views on death throughout his lifetime. The early stories tend to look forward at the future, viewing death as a looming obstacle. The characters look to religion for solace, and find it an imperfect comfort. For the characters in the middle stories, their ways of dealing with the uncertainty of death is not necessarily found in religion or philosophy but rather the everyday things that surround them the secular—life, and the human relationships that surround them. In the later stories, the characters are old, having lived most of their lives already; for them, the idea of death prompts them into their past, rather than worrying about their future. |
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