Background of the author
Class Discussion Questions:
First, think about what John Updike has written about his artistic intentions:
from "The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood" (1962)
He once said his aim was "to give the mundane its beautiful due."
"Blankness is not emptiness; we may skate upon an intense radiance we do not see because we see nothing else. And in fact there is a colour, a quiet but tireless goodness that things at rest, like a brick wall or a small stone, seem to affirm."
"To transcribe middleness with all its grits, bumps, and anonymities, in its fullness of satisfaction and mystery: is it possible or, in view of the suffering that violently colors the periphery and that at all moments threatens to move into the center, worth doing? Possibly not; but the horse-chestnut trees, the telephone poles, the porches, the green hedges recede to a calm point that in my subjective geography is still the center of the world."
1. Judging from the story we read, "Separating," is transcribing middleness "worth doing"? What does Updike mean by "periphery" and "center" when talking about suffering?
2. How can the intention to leave and the overwhelming urge to cry coexist in Richard? Consider both extremes and where they intersect.
3. Why does this story work so well in third-person, even though almost all of the details are meant to give us Richard's point of view?
4. Why is the question "Why?" left unanswered at the end of the story?
