(Updike 22) Guilt and blame play a major role in the story. Updike utilizes this when Rabbit is constantly running away from his problems. Rabbit is both attracted and repelled by the things he is running from. For example as he is running away from Ruth because she is pregnant while he is running to Janice as result from her and Rabbit's baby. .
The character development utilized in Rabbit, Run follows the main character, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, and uses basketball as a representation for self-discovery. Harry Angstrom was a first rate basketball player throughout his high school years; but seems to be stuck living in the glory of those days as he is dissatisfied with how his life has turned out, a salesman of kitchen supplies. In the beginning of the book Rabbit is side tracked by a pick up game of basketball and finds himself shedding some wisdom to a group of kids: .
You climb up through the little grades and then you get to the top and everybody cheers; with the sweat in your eyebrows you can't see very well and the noise swirls around you and lifts you up, and then you're out, not forgotten at first, just out, and it feels good and cool and free. You're out, and sort of melt, and keep lifting, until you become like to these kids just one more piece of the sky of adults that hangs over them in the town, a piece that for some queer reason has clouded and visited them. They've not forgotten him; worse, they've never heard of him. Yet in his time Rabbit was famous through out the county [] (Updike 7).
Furthermore Rabbit seeks a sense of authority that comes with being well known. Rabbit credits his high school fame to his basketball coach Marty Tothero. While struggling with his current relationship with his wife, Janice, Rabbit seeks his former basketball coach, who is gradually losing it and becoming less reliable, for some guidance. Rabbit then meets Jack Eccles, a minister that serves as an authority figure.
