The centaur by john updike I need help understanding this book.?

Answer 1

The Centaur is a magical book that takes you on many twists and turns as the characters slowly develop. One must be warned that this book needs some prior knowledge in Greek mythology, of which I have none. The types of relationships in this book discussed are between a father and a son. The storyline can be hazy, especially in this bizarre story of a man stuck with his teenage son in a snow storm intertwined with a noble centaur. "Peter Caldwell, a second-rate painter living in Greenwich Village, remembers three days during his adolescence in 1947 and infuses the experience with mythological significance. Updike uses a mixture of realistic narration and mythological figures, Peter as Prometheus, his father, George, as the centaur Chiron, to structure a novel which opens with a invocation of the father's godlike presence and concludes with the son's perception of his father's human mortality, his loss of deification." (E-Notes) (http://www.enotes.com/centaur-john-updike-salem/centaur-0089900074) After reading reviews for The Centaur John Updike used his relationship with his father to write some of the story. The father is an overachieving school teacher who looks at his ambitious and artistic son and sees his own life in a bleak manner. This is inter woven with a story of a half man half horse the "noblest and wisest" being Chiron who subliminally and figuratively a science teacher. All of this was very confusing, but John McTavish from Theology today says: "The symbolism in The Centaur, however, is more than a bonus. It is the very core of a story that has to do with the mythical impression of life experienced in adolescence. Is it not so that boyfriends, girlfriends, parents, friends of parents, teachers, classmates, almost everyone who walks into our lives in those early teenage years assumes mythical, larger-thanlife proportions, and to a remarkable extent retains those proportions throughout our lives? This is the life-defining truth that Updike attempts to get down on paper in The Centaur. Clearly, he believes that it is not enough simply to deck out his characters with mythical overtones in this case. Rather, the characters themselves are like gods whose mythical personae assume human form in the story. Chiron, the noblest and wisest of the centaurs, manifests himself as a high school science teacher; Prometheus appears as the teacher's son; Zeus as the school's principal, and so on." (Find Articles) (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3664/is_200301/ai_n9198900/pg_2?tag=artBody;col1) Throughout Updikes novel, so many characters are put on parallels to mythological creatures and false gods. The science teacher (Chiron) gives up his mortality, this represents the father giving up his livelihood for his son. Much of the time the connection between man and god is discussed the where the line meets. What does god do for us, and how does god affect man, or half man half horse.

Answer 2

"The Centaur" by John Updike is a novel that weaves together parallel stories of a high school teacher and his son, drawing parallels to the myth of Chiron the centaur from Greek mythology. The book explores themes of father-son relationships, the passage of time, and the struggles of ordinary life against a backdrop of mythology and symbolism. Updike's writing style is known for its complex and layered prose, so paying attention to details and themes throughout the novel can help in understanding its deeper meanings.