Here's a report on John Updike and some of the things that he has written. If someone wants to use it, be advised that they should change all of the "its" referring to morality and etc... to something else. My extremely anal english teacher marked me off a point for every "it" that I used. Janice Tsai Senior-Munster High School Existence is like a creature that hides and then reveals itself. Existence is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary as the "state or fact of being." This existence strives to reach truth which is located beyond space and time, yet truth must be grasped by existence nevertheless. This is accomplished through ritual, which can bring about the capturing of the inconceivable. Edward P. Vargo stated that John Updike uses ritual "to fulfill the great desire of capturing the past, to make the present meaningful through connection with the past, to overcome death, and to grasp immortality" (Contemporary Vol. 7 487). He combines the aspects and meaning of seemingly unimportant ritual along with mankind's desire for a relationship with God to form truth and value for the past, present, and future. Updike uses his talents as a writer to bring together the conceivable and the inconceivable. John Updike implements his philosophies and ideals in a way that brings together existence with meaning. "Updike is in the best sense of the word an intellectual novelist, a novelist of paradox, tension and complexity who as a college wit in the fifties learned that we are all symbols and inhabit symbols" (World 3752). Updike uses his beliefs to form stronger meanings in his writings. John Updike has a strong faith in human intelligence. He believes that people can use it to explore the universe. He finds the world "to be a place of intricate and marvelous patterns of meaning" (Contemporary Vol. 5 449). With this faith he is able to bring things into focus that would not ordinarily be...