over her, taking control of her life from day
one. In Ruth Leonard's role as the whore, she beautifully illustrates the woman that gives
up all that she is to please her man, and risks losing herself in the process. She, like many
women before her, lets her body be used by men in order to try and fill some sort of
emptiness inside. She is still left with that feeling of emptiness when, by the next morning,
the lover of the night before is gone, and there is cold and unloving cash replacing their
When we first encounter Ruth , she is somewhat docile, though she has her defiant
moments. (Updike, 48) She is not aggressive and lets Rabbit take over her life. While
making some attempts at retaining her individuality and separateness from Rabbit, they are
half hearted efforts at best. She gives up her career as a prostitute and begins to depend
solely on Rabbit to take care of her. She becomes Rabbit's personal whore, and loses a lot
of herself in focusing on him. (Thornburn, 26) She lets herself be degraded by Rabbit.
When his fragile male ego has been injured, he wants her to perform fellatio on him, so
that he can feel as if he once again has the upper hand. She does as he wishes, even
though it means giving up the scant amount of control that she has gained. Rabbit
degrades and abandons her, after he has gotten what he wants from her. He goes back to
his wife without a word to Ruth. By the end of the novel, we see that she is beginning to
succeed in her attempts to separate herself from him, even when he comes begging to be
taken back. He has left her once already, pregnant and alone. She has come to terms with
her pregnancy, and is starting to put her life together and move on. (Updike, 259) When
Rabbit comes back, she attempts to say no to him only to give up, and promise to take him
back if he will divorce his wife for good. (Updike, 262) If she is sincere in th...