Rabbit, Run

The novel begins several years into Rabbit’s adulthood. Having grown apart from most of his childhood friends, he now works as a salesperson for the creators of a kitchen appliance called the MagiPeeler. Rabbit is married to Janice, a salesperson at a previous place of employment. They are expecting another child soon. They move into a suburb of Brewer, Pennsylvania called Mount Judge, along with their two-year-old child, Nelson. Bored by his ordinary white-collar life, Rabbit makes an impulsive decision to escape by driving south. When he gets lost along the way, he decides to turn around. He goes back to Mount Judge and visits the home of Marty Tothero, his former basketball coach.

The night of his visit to Marty, he has dinner with the coach and his two daughters. One of the girls, Ruth Leonard, is a prostitute who works various shifts part-time. Ruth and Rabbit begin dating, and he quickly moves in with her. Meanwhile, Janice goes back to live with her parents. An Episcopal priest in the area, Jack Eccles, becomes Rabbit’s friend and attempts to convince him to come to terms with his wife, to no avail. Rabbit and Ruth stay together until he finds out that she had a relationship with Ronnie Harrison, his enemy from high school. Crazed, Rabbit forces a fearful Ruth to perform oral sex on him. Later that night, Rabbit finds out that Janice has gone into labor. He leaves Ruth’s apartment to see his wife and child at the hospital.



Reconciling with Janice, Rabbit returns to live with her and the new baby, a girl whom they name Rebecca June. One Sunday morning, Rabbit goes to church and ends up walking Lucy, the wife of the minister, to her house. She invites him to come in for coffee, which he misinterprets as a request to have sex. Angry, Lucy shuts the door in his face. Rabbit goes home and is overwhelmed with happiness at the birth of Rebecca June. Somewhat altered by his emotions, he attempts to talk with Janice about their emotions. He convinces her to drink alcohol, and then misinterpreting her signals, tries to force her to have sex. Janice declines, telling him that he treats her like a prostitute. Angry, Rabbit masturbates over her, and then departs, resolving to get back together with Ruth. When he arrives, their apartment is empty. He goes to a hotel, instead, to spend the night.

Morning comes, and Janice is extremely wracked with sorrow by Rabbit’s abusive treatment. She drinks too much, accidentally neglecting Rebecca June in the bathtub, who drowns. Soon, everyone except Rabbit finds out about the death and convenes at the home of Janice’s parents. That afternoon, oblivious to the death of his child, Rabbit telephones Reverend Eccles, asking for his opinion on how best to return home. Reverend Eccles informs him of Rebecca June’s death, compelling Rabbit to go home. Later, Tothero finds Rabbit and tells him that whatever he is looking for is probably illusory. Rabbit and the other main characters go to Rebecca June’s funeral. Rabbit finally breaks down in public, using a platform to assert that he is not complicit in the death of Rebecca June. He flees from the graveyard and is followed by Jack Eccles.

At the end of the novel, Rabbit goes back to Ruth. He finds out that she is carrying his child. Despite the fact that Rabbit is happy that Ruth has opted not to have an abortion, he refuses to divorce Janice. He leaves Ruth, never even vaguely aware that he has been searching for the entire novel.



Rabbit, Run ends on this note of ambivalence. Its protagonist, incorrigibly immature, sacrifices his real relationships in exchange for temporary rushes of euphoria and manic optimism. Ultimately, the novel suggests one can only be as content as the relationships one successfully nurtures, despite the successes one seems to make.