Jack's job for the lack of love in her marriage because he lacks time for her. Fritz Kruppenbach – the Angstroms' Lutheran minister. He tells Jack Eccles that Harry and Janice are best left to themselves. Ruth Leonard – Rabbit's mistress with whom he lives for three months. She is a former prostitute and lives alone in an apartment for two people. She is weight-conscious. Margaret Kosko – a friend of Ruth's. Probably also a prostitute. She is contemptuous of Tothero. Mrs. Smith – a widow whose garden Rabbit looks after while away from his wife. She is 73 years old. Marty Tothero – Rabbit's former basketball coach. He was popular in high school but got dismissed from his job due to a "scandal". He cheats on his wife but gives marital advice to Harry. After suffering two strokes, he becomes disabled. Ronnie Harrison – One of Rabbit's former basketball teammates. He has slept with Margaret Kosko and Ruth Leonard. Inspiration and historical context My subject is the American Protestant small-town middle class. I like middles. It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules. Updike said that when he looked around in 1959 he saw a number of scared dodgy men who could not make commitments, men who peaked in high school and existed in a downward spiral. Their idea of happiness was to be young. In 1959 America the Late Modernism period was coming to an end, and Updike inherited the cultural legacy of Modernism. With this legacy, that lacks spiritual vitality and potent erotic traditions, Rabbit has no vocabulary to give voice to his sexual and spiritual conundrums and feelings. In the novel the norms of Modernism are being replaced with those of a new era with a desiccated view of spirituality and a revaluation of eroticism, things previously held constant and in some cases repressed in traditional American thought. The title matches the popular World War II-era song "Run Rabbit Run". Major themes Sex Updike said, "About sex in general, by all means let's have it in fiction, as detailed as needs be, but real, real in its social and psychological connections. Let's take coitus out of the closet and off the altar and put it on the continuum of human behavior." Rabbit has an animalistic obsession with sex rather than a romanticized vision. He uses superficial criteria to pick his partners. He is