John Updikes Outage free essay sample

Upon reaching the downtown area, Brad is struck by the interactions between the startled patrons who have suddenly disconnected from their day-to-day activities to talk to one another. At the local bank, â€Å"The tellers chatting on the padded bench where the applicants for mortgages and perpetrators of overdrafts customarily languished† (653) is a pleasant change from the typical fast-paced happenings in the post office where â€Å"everything had been computerized by a United States Postal Service zealous to modernize, and [where] not a single letter could be weighed or a single stamp sold† (653). As he leaves downtown, Brad is struck by the â€Å"overflow of good nature†¦ baring neglected possibilities† (653) that had been brought about by the power outage. Like the rest of the community, Brad is reveling in the newfound freedom that has been brought about by this hiatus of technology. A motif in Updike’s narrative, the oppressive presence of technology is emphasized using personification. We will write a custom essay sample on John Updikes Outage or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page While Brad’s burglar alarm is initially â€Å"peeping and blinking softly, as if to itself† (652), Lynne’s beeps in a less passive, â€Å"distinct and insistent† (654) manner. When Brad and Lynne become intimate, â€Å"the great plasma screen [stares] blankly and the morning Globe lay still in its plastic wrapper†(655), reminding the reader of the momentarily paused outside world and once again of the omnipresence of electronics. Brad, with his perceptive worldview and appreciation for technology, is keenly aware of this presence; he never completely forgets about the â€Å"real world†, asking â€Å"Did you mean it, that your phone doesn’t work, either? † (656) assuring himself that he and Lynne are truly isolated before they engage sexually. Brad personifies electronics with a sort of reverence, saying that the burglar alarm doesn’t â€Å"like† losing current as though it has human wants. When the power lines are fixed and electricity turns on the appliances in Lynne’s house, Brad tells Lynne that the silenced alarm is telling her â€Å"All is well, all is normal†¦Get that man out of my house†¦ I’m in charge now, this is how it is. This is reality†(657), calling her back to the automated world which they had taken a passionate reprieve from . Updike emphasizes this emotional disconnect through the juxtaposition of the two main characters of his narrative. A levelheaded, insightful individual, Brad Morris is conscious of the influence that technology has had over society. Upon the initial power surge, Brad finds a sort of dry humor in the dependence that he has built on technology, feeling â€Å"impotent, and amused at his impotence in this emergency† (652). During the progression of the outage, Brad is surprised by its effect on people, first becoming â€Å"†¦startled by two young women embracing [and the] people [who] had been flushed onto the sidewalk by the outage† (652). Conversely, Lynne, the woman with whom Brad conducts an affair in the confusion of the storm, is disconnected from the people around her. Upon her initial introduction, Updike describes her as â€Å"A woman in white- a shiny vinyl rain coat and silly-looking white running shoes† (653), and continues to portray her as a spectral figure throughout the story. Brad recalls that when he initially happened upon Lynne, he â€Å"had thought for an instant she was a ghost, and there was a ghostly detached quality in the way she moved, her lips crimped in that twist of self criticism† (656). She is even distant in her bedside manner, â€Å"[kissing] dryly†¦ as if testing her lipstick† (655) and speaking â€Å"in the light voice of a woman talking to a girlfriend† (656). Older and more confident, Brad encounters the maturity gap between them when he explains to her that â€Å"At a certain level, men-and women in business too, of course- have to look each other in the eye†¦ with all this electronic communication everywhere, there’s really no need to get out all that much† (655). This disparity in maturity is alluded to frequently in the short story; while Brad represents an older generation that respects technology and is wary of society’s growing technological dependence, Lynne is an example of the younger generation that has replaced the eye to eye contact that Brad referred to with technological communication, resulting in poor interpersonal relationships. Outage† leaves the reader pensive and wary regarding their personal lifestyle; do we let technology and the media squelch our more intimate aspirations, or do we break free of the fast-paced lifestyle that we have become accustomed to? Technology often takes an individual and causes him to withdraw into himself rather than engage with the community and contribute to society as a whole.