John Updike
Analysis of Ian McEwan's "On John Updike" and John Updike's "The Wallet"
In an article meant to eulogize the late, great writer John Updike, Ian McEwan makes a statement that is confusing unless one understands Updike's background. McEwan says that "This most Lutheran of writers, driven by intellectual curiosity all his life, was troubled by science as others are troubled by God" (McEwan). The eulogizer makes the point that Updike was not troubled by God, but by the technology that had been increasing his confusion about the world he lived in. It is easy to see that the contention McEwan is making with relation to John Updike is that the author was comfortable with his conception of God through "long relationship" (McEwan), but he was uncomfortable with the change wrought in the world by an ever-increasing technology.
To reference this point McEwan uses the author himself, and an article/short story Updike wrote in 1985 called "The Wallet" (McEwan). As a man who had lived through almost a century's worth of changes, John Updike had gone from the age of simple automobiles to that of space travel. But, more simply, he had also gone from a time when he could rely on the fact that events would occur at a certain pace and care to a time when people were not as involved and the entire process seemed "impersonal" (Updike). "The Wallet" tells the seemingly simple story of a man who first seeks a large check he believes has been misplaced, and then finds that he has lost his wallet (Updike). The crux of the matter is that he has lost himself. In one part of the story Updike writes has the protagonist say "It was my wallet. Everything was in it. Everything. Without that wallet, I am nothing" (Updike). It is not that the man (Fulham, known only by his last name in the story) really believes that his entire...
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