Vilnius pedagogical university faculty of foreign languages department of english philology

CONCLUSIONS

The twentieth century was “the mythical age” due to the fact that writers of that time widely employed ancient myths in their works. Updike’s The Centaur is one of the best examples of a mythological novel. The Chiron myth, employed by the author, shaped the novel and offered an extended contrastive parallel to the contemporary world.
Updike treated the mythological material quite freely in The Centaur. He altered the original myth of Chiron and presumed some other deviations from the traditional Classical mythology. The three main distinctions between the myth proper and myth occurring in The Centaur are: first, in the novel, Peter (Prometheus) is the son of Caldwell (Chiron); the second difference comprises Caldwell’s (Chiron) and Hummel’s (Hephaestus) friendship; the third is Vera Hummel’s (Venus) and Caldwell’s (Chiron) passionate relationship. There might be several reasons for deviating from the original myth, but the most important is that Updike did not aim to re-narrate the Chiron myth; he used it as a core, backbone of the novel.
In The Centaur both implicit (mythological images serve as symbols) and explicit (reality overtly intertwines with the divine world) methods of framing the mythological semantics occur.
On the basis of Campbell’s myth theory four main functions of the Chiron myth in The Centaur were identified and analyzed. They are: metaphysical, sociological, cosmological and pedagogical.

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  The metaphysical function of myth establishes transcendent-religious background of the novel. Despite being identified with the noble centaur, Caldwell is also paralleled with Christ. The protagonist not only abnegates his ambitions on behalf of his son, he also does it for all the people. Moreover, the metaphysical function emphasizes the importance of Caldwell’s sacrifice, his suffering and pain.
  
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  The sociological function of myth has two main purposes: it portrays social and spiritual chaos in contemporary America and emphasizes degradation and deterioration of a modern individual. The chaos prevails nearly everywhere: at Caldwell’s lesson, in Hummel’s garage, in Minor Kretz’s luncheonette. People, surrounding the protagonist are spiritually hollow, narrow-minded and mediocre.
  
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  The cosmological function of myth endows every image and object of The Centaur with mystery and prominence. It also elucidates that particular elements of the novel (elements of visibilia: the arrow, the earth, the tree, the
  

sky, and the element of invisibilia which is time) are loaded with additional significance which adds the novel extra dimension.

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  The pedagogical function of myth, which is the most important one, comprises an educational aspect. It teaches how to live a human life under any circumstances, on the example of Caldwell-Chiron. It emphasizes that despite his poverty and numerous misfortunes the protagonist remaines a good and honest man. Moreover, this function helps the reader to understand that the journey from life to death must have a spiritual purpose.
  

The underlying theme of The Centaur (as well as other Updike’s novels), presenting the problems of an average American living a trivial life, achieves the level of the eternal themes. The novel is structured according to the dichotomies given in the first epigraph: heaven and earth, good and evil, ideal and matter-of-fact worlds. These oppositions illustrate duality of the human nature (as well as the centaur symbolizes the duality) – spiritual and physiological aspects always countervail against each other.

Updike’s The Centaur is a philosophical novel because it evokes philosophical questions such as: how and why one should live, how to make the world better, etc. The author implies that one should try to change and improve his or her own life in order to perfect the hostile world. Caldwell-Chiron-Christ serves as a model of behaviour – anyone can follow his example an reach the higher level of existence.
MITO FUNKCIJOS JOHN UPDIKE’O ROMANE KENTAURAS