Vilnius pedagogical university faculty of foreign languages department of english philology

neck”, “some force of misery or weather had scrubbed his white face down to the veins”, “broken bits of purple had hatched on his cheeks”, however, Caldwell is polite with this man and calls him “mister.” (The Centaur, p. 75) The teacher even says to him: “You’re a man I admire. You’ve had the guts to do what I always wanted to do: move around, see the cities.” (The Centaur, p. 81) When he finds out that the hitchhiker is a cook, Caldwell responses: “My hat’s off to you. You’re an artist.” (The Centaur, p. 82)
After these words the reader comes across Peter’s thoughts concerning the event taking place: “I cringed with the desire to apologize, to grovel before this stranger, to explain. It’s just his way, he loves strange people, he’s worried about something”. (The Centaur, p. 82) Unfortunately, at this point of the novel Peter is still too young to understand that his father loves not strange people but all the people, and especially those who are on a losing streak, who are not so successful in their lives, and experience misfortunes. Peter surely loves his father, but at the same time he is often annoyed by ridiculous situations his father gets in. Caldwell appreciates the first one who comes along due to the fact that his goodness does not favour one person or another, he loves everybody and is eager to help everybody. This feature of the character assimilates him with Christ, for he also loved every single person, especially those who were lost on the way of their lives and who needed help, guidance and compassion. The worst people with the worst intentions – those who want to deceive, hurt and steal from Caldwell, are simply unhappy people for him, he feels sympathy for them. Deep in his heart lays the feeling that these unfortunates are similar to him as he himself is a wretched man. Moreover, Caldwell-Chiron-Christ feels that he is responsible for all of them because if he does not help them, nobody will ever do it. At this point it is possible to conclude, that there are not many people like Caldwell. It requires much inner strength and love to become selfless and care about others, even when they do not appreciate it.
The hitchhiker did not even thank Caldwell. Moreover, he stole his gloves from the back seat of the car, the gloves his son had bought him, and still, Caldwell says to Peter: “That man was a gentleman”, “he needs ‘em more than I did”. (The Centaur, pp. 85-86)
In the other episode when the drunk importunes George and Peter in Alton, and calls Caldwell a “dirty man” (The Centaur, p. 143), the teacher gives the drunk his last thirty-five cents and even apologizes for not having more money. It may seem ridiculous at first sight; however, Caldwell is a man who can see and understand another person’s troubles and problems, who can forgive everything, who is capable of high and generous feelings, just like Christ was.
In the episode when Caldwell and Peter are stuck in the storm on the road and a Dodge passes by without stopping to help them, the father says to his son:
‘Did you notice the way that bastard didn’t offer to give us a push?’ ‘How could expect him to? He just about made it himself.’ ‘I would, in his shoes.’ ‘But there’s nobody else like you, Daddy. There’s nobody else like you in the world.’ He is shouting because his father has clenched his fists on the steering wheel and is resting his forehead on their backs. (The Centaur, p. 234)

Peter is desperately shouting because he understands that his father is different and it is extremely difficult for him to live in the world of the wolfish laws. In his nightmare dream he sees the father convicted of some crime walking naked while the people of Olinger are cursing, laughing, and throwing dark objects at him. He is wearing his knitted cap on his head and this cap. In this episode an implicit allusion to the Bible can be noticed; hence, Caldwell’s cap is simultaneously realized by the reader as a crown of thorns. In his dream Peter “tried to explain aloud to the angry townspeople how innocent his father was, how overlooked, worried, conscientious, and anxious; but the legs of the crowd shoved and smothered him and he could not make his voice heard.” (The Centaur, p. 191) This scene is very symbolic as it reminds of the trials of Christ. Moreover, Caldwell resembles all the ancient martyrs (Socrates and others), despite the fact that he is a modern American, a funny and pitiful schoolteacher, the owner of an unnecessary and simultaneously absolutely invaluable treasure – his tender loving heart and his goodness. (Кентавр, стр. 279)

As Robert Detweiler writes: “Updike uses Classical myth to shape a Christian- informed vision of life.” (John Updike, p. 91) According to the critic, Caldwell demonstrates the dual nature of a human being just like Chiron does. The centaur is half man and half horse, he lives on the Earth, but he possesses the divine intelligence and immortality. On the one hand, Caldwell loves people, especially those who are unsuccessful, and on the other hand “he is constantly faced with the imminence of death” (John Updike, p. 91). So, he seems to be a saint, he loves people and is ready to sacrifice for them, but the fact that he feels an endless persecution of death brings in “the dimension that always recalls him to his humanity” (John Updike, p. 91).
One more aspect which is emphasized by Detweiler is that “the traditional God is no longer taken seriously” (John Updike, p. 93). For instance, Caldwell responds to his colleague French teacher’s “Dieu est très fin” (The Centaur, p. 176) absently: “He’s a wonderful old gentleman. I don’t know where the hell we’d be without Him.” (The Centaur, p. 177) Neither God nor a science teacher is taken seriously in the present days. Edward Vargo expresses a similar point of view. He supposes that Updike does not write about God in a traditional key. To him, God is something different, not an image of an old man sitting on a cloud and making people’s dreams come true, but something transcendent, something what is at the same time near and far away, what we cannot always see, but are sometimes able to recognize.
Once Updike said: “I describe things not because their muteness mocks our subjectivity but because they seem to be masks of God” (Quoted by Vargo, p.7). In these words lies the most general idea of Updike’s writings. Mocked by a great many critics for being too detail-oriented, he is perhaps the only writer who is able to turn simple unnoticeable things sacred, who is capable of recognizing the “masks of God”.
In one of his essays Michael Novak has analyzed what seems to be a major difficulty for many critics in analyzing Updike’s works: