This short story has been viewed from several different dimensions。 For scholars who focus on the work itself, some hold the view that this story is frankly emotional, containing deep feelings, while others perceive the nihility and transcendence in it。 Moreover, some scholars relate the core of the story with its author John Updike to discuss the Updike’s literary career。

Zhao Yuanyuan (2016) from Anhui University concentrates on the nihility hidden in the work。 By presenting American middle class people in mental crisis, the work shows Updike’s nihilism about empty and meaningless life。 As Updike is an optimistic writer who believes in a brighter future for America, his characters in the work are also influenced to have a positive attitude towards life。 Through depicting characters, Updike gives optimistic suggestion to reconstruct new values, transcend upon nihility and find new ways of life。 

Scholar Guo Linghui (2012) from Shenzhou University holds the view that the story is closely related with Updike’s own life。 The experience of the protagonist in the story--Jim is so similar to Updike’s that the story seems like a real portray of Updike’s life。 By composing this short story, Updike recalls his life experience briefly。 On the one hand, Updike pours out his pains in the lost of father。 On the other hand, he explains the reason of his departure from his child。

All of the scholars have stated their points of view clearly with detailed reasons。 In fact, the story has not yet been discussed thoroughly since there is few academic researches study on it so far。 Thus, the work still has a lot of space to explore。 In recent years, quite a few scholars are doing researches on analyzing John Updike’s works from the spatial perspective, and some of them value the functions of heterotopias set in Updike’s composition。 The arrangement of space in the story is also impressive。 I would like to analyze this short story from the spatial perspective to explore its profound meanings beyond the words, which will help to understand Updike’s pursuit in literature at the same time。

1。2 Background and Significance 

John Hoyer Updike (1932–2009) was an influential American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic。 Having published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books during his career, Updike is a prolific writer。 The novel series, the Rabbit tetralogy (1961-1990) is his most famous work, which has brought him the Pulitzer Prize for novel twice in 1982 and 1991 respectively。 

Ian McEwan, one of the most influential contemporary British writers, mourned over his death for the lost of him would result in such a stage that “We are coming to the end of the golden age of the American novel in the twentieth century’s second half” (2009)。 Joyce Carol Oates regarded John Updike as a “slightly-older classmate in a vast high school populated by not-prosperous rural youths in some netherland of the nineteen-fifties” and she was sure that Updike was the “president of this class”(2009)。 These praises were concluded from Updike’s numerous literary works, which recognize Updike’s unique status on the vast stage of American literature at the same time。来自优W尔Y论W文C网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520,18766

As a significant writer, it is natural that his literary works has arisen controversial views from critics。 Ian McEwan lauded that Updike’s “literary schemes and pretty conceits touched at points on the Shakespearean”(2009)。 Comparing Updike with Shakespeare on a literary level, McEwan highly praised Updike’s talents in composing literary work。

Meanwhile, some critics question Updike’s writing style。 John W。 Aldridge claimed in his essay ‘The Private Vice of John Updike’ (1966) that Updike’s prose is filled with “tinily inward observations of people, in which nothing discernible happened… Behind the rich, beautiful scenery of the descriptive prose, Mr。 Updike has nothing to say。” The phrases “tinily inward observations” and “descriptive prose” that ware criticized in the criticism uncover Updike’s distinct writing features of attentive description and meticulous observation, which are appreciative to other people actually。