Rabbit, Run

Rabbit returns from church wanting to make love to Janice, but the baby cries inconsolably all afternoon. Around five, Janice begins weeping, saying she has no milk left. Rabbit suggests she drink to relax, which irritates her. Tensions mount in the apartment as the infant continues to scream.

After the baby finally quiets, Rabbit persuades Janice to have whiskey. In bed, he attempts to seduce her. She is passive at first, but she stops him, explaining she wants sleep and cannot have intercourse for six weeks while healing. Embarrassed and frustrated, Rabbit persists awkwardly. She pushes him away, saying he is using her and it feels cheap.

Enraged, Rabbit tells her to roll over. She misunderstands and turns her back to sleep. He attempts to sexually stimulate himself between her buttocks. She asks if this is a trick the sex worker taught him. Rabbit strikes her shoulder, gets dressed, and prepares to leave. They exchange angry words. Janice collapses, sobbing into her pillow. Harry feels he has stopped loving her and walks out.

Soon after Rabbit leaves, Janice falls asleep. Around four in the morning, Rebecca June wakes her for nursing. Janice reflects on the shame of losing Rabbit again and on childhood feelings of inadequacy. She recalls getting pregnant, Rabbit’s joyful reaction, and how loneliness after marriage led her to drink. Rabbit’s crude demand shattered the peace they had achieved.

To calm her panic, Janice has a drink, then another. At the window, her engorged breast leaks milk. She removes her wet nightgown and sits naked in the armchair. After knocking over her glass, she makes a third drink, feeling a strange presence that feels like a burglar in the apartment.

She turns on the television but finds only static. She sobs, then nurses the baby again. When Nelson wakes, she makes breakfast, breaking a glass. She lies to Nelson, saying his father went to work early, and has another drink to cope with the deception.

Janice and Nelson watch television and color together. When Janice’s messy coloring makes her cry, Nelson runs to the bedroom in a tantrum. Janice’s father calls, suspicious that Rabbit missed work. Janice invents a story about Rabbit going to Allentown, but her father is unconvinced. Her mother phones next, accusing Janice of drinking and announcing she is coming over. Janice begs her not to come.

Panicked, Janice tries to clean up. The baby cries. She decides to bathe Rebecca June before her mother arrives. As she kneels by the brimming tub, Janice loses her grasp on the baby. She scrabbles in the opaque water but cannot find purchase on the slippery infant. When she lifts Rebecca June out, the baby is limp. Frantic artificial respiration and prayer produce no response. When her mother knocks at the door, Janice knows her daughter is dead.

Eccles tells Lucy that Janice has accidentally drowned the baby. Lucy angrily blames Rabbit and implies that Eccles is responsible for reuniting them. Eccles tries calling Ruth but gets no answer. Rabbit phones from a Brewer drugstore asking if Janice contacted the police. Eccles breaks the news about Rebecca June.

Rabbit takes a bus back to Mt. Judge, sickened with grief. He recalls spending the previous night in a cheap hotel after failing to find Ruth at her home, then wandering Brewer all of the following day. He feels that this selfish desire murdered his daughter.

At the Springers’ house, Mrs. Springer slams the door on Rabbit, but Eccles admits him in. Nelson tells Rabbit about the big water in the tub. Rabbit holds the boy tightly. Mr. Springer makes a conciliatory speech, saying Rabbit is not solely to blame and remains part of the family. Rabbit gratefully promises to keep his end of the bargain.

After putting Nelson to bed, Rabbit returns to his apartment and finds the bathwater still in the tub. He pulls the plug and thinks that God did nothing to prevent the tragedy. He spends a restless night haunted by images of his daughter.

The next day, he goes to Janice, who clings to him. He tells her it was his fault. Visitors come and go, including Peggy Fosnacht and Tothero, who has recovered from treatment at the hospital. Tothero claims he warned Rabbit that misery follows disobedience. Tothero’s wife waits outside and drives him away.

Eccles arrives to arrange Rebecca June’s funeral. Rabbit asks for guidance. Eccles tells him to be a good husband and love what remains, adding that the tragedy has united Rabbit and Janice in the sacred bond of marriage.

Rabbit spends Tuesday night with Janice but cannot sleep. He dreams of a pale disc eclipsing a dense one, which he interprets as death explained. He feels he must share this revelation, but when he wakes up, he realizes it was only a dream.

Rabbit, Janice, and Nelson walk to their apartment for funeral clothes. The ordinary streets fill Rabbit with existential panic and a feeling of nonexistence. At the apartment, Janice tries on an old black suit that no longer fits and screams in frustration. As Rabbit buttons her blouse, he briefly cries.

They return to the Springers’. The hours before the funeral drag. Rabbit dreads seeing his parents, especially his mother. At the funeral parlor, Rabbit registers the unnatural décor that surrounds them, as well as Rebecca June’s small white coffin. Rabbit’s parents and sister Mim arrive. His mother rushes to embrace him, crying. Embarrassed, he pushes her away. She then embraces Janice, calling her her daughter. Rabbit feels that he has wounded and deserted both women.

During the graveside service, Eccles’ words initially feel clumsy, but the words “shepherd, lamb, arms” (251) make Rabbit weep. As the casket is lowered, Rabbit feels a surge of strength, certain his daughter has ascended to Heaven. When the service ends, Rabbit turns to Janice and tells her he did not kill the baby. When mourners react with shock, he claims that Janice is the one responsible, though she did not mean it. Janice pulls away toward her parents.

Feeling betrayed by everyone, including his mother, Rabbit is overcome with shame and rage. He turns and runs from the grave. Eccles calls after him and gives brief chase before stopping. Rabbit runs into the woods, becomes lost and frightened, stumbles upon the cellar hole of a forgotten house, and feels a sense of divinely ordained futility in the efforts of the family that used to live there. He eventually finds the road near the Pinnacle Hotel. He calls the rectory to reassure Eccles, but Lucy answers, recognizes him, and hangs up. He feels simplified and relieved to be free of Eccles.

From the Pinnacle Hotel, Rabbit looks down at Brewer, then walks through the streets to Ruth’s apartment. She meets him at the stairs and tells him to leave. She appears graver and thicker in the waist. He tells her he has just left his wife. He correctly guesses she is pregnant.

Rabbit pushes into Ruth’s apartment and tries to embrace her, but she fights him off. They argue about his disappearance weeks earlier. She reveals that Eccles had called a half-hour earlier and told her about the baby’s death. She calls him an agent of death, saying he has the touch of death.

He asks if she has had an abortion. After tormenting him, she admits she has not and could not go through with it. Overjoyed, he embraces her and begs her to have the baby. She asks if he will marry her. He says he would love to.

She gives him an ultimatum: divorce Janice and marry her, or she and the baby are “dead” to him. Overwhelmed, Rabbit says he will work it out and offers to get them food from the delicatessen.

Outside, Rabbit’s mind crowds with worries and impossible choices. He feels momentary comfort knowing both Ruth and Janice have parents to support them. He looks at the church across the street, but its window is dark. He feels his inner self as a pure blank space, making him small and impossible to capture. Instead of walking around the block as planned, he crosses the street and starts to run.