Vilnius pedagogical university faculty of foreign languages department of english philology

Deifendorf had pulled the Davis girl out into the aisle and she was giggling and struggling in his long hair-speckled arms. […] The girl’s mussed skirt was up around her waist. She was bent face down over the desk and Deifendorf’s hooves shuffled in agitation in the narrow aisle. From his sleepy careful grin he was covering her; the whole room smelled like a stable. (The Centaur, p. 44)

At this point Caldwell is not able to witness everything happening in front of him any more, he takes out his arrow-shaft and whips Deifendorf (who transformed into brutal satyr). The lesson is finally over but it has left a very strong feeling of the chaos and immeasurability in the reader. The exaggerated pupils doing whatever they want, even having sex during the lesson; the principal of the school, undressing one of the girls; the entire congestion of mess and disorder illustrate that contemporary America is loosing its moral values and further sinking in the sea of the spiritual chaos.

The third chapter presents the lesson of the centaur Chiron; by juxtaposing the chaotic present with the divine past the author strengthens the feeling of the contemporary chaos. The whole chapter is written in such a way that the reader gets the feeling of harmony, order and the slow flow of time. For instance, as Chiron comes to the clearing in the wood, his students are already “seated in a semi-circle on the warm orchard grass” and they “hailed him gladly” (The Centaur, p.89) His students are clever and willing to study, “Asclepios, the best student, was quiet and determinedly composed; in many respects he had already surpassed his master.” (The Centaur, p. 89) One of the students is his daughter, Ocyrhoe, she is “too intelligent to take her childhood easily” (The Centaur, p.89) Further one reads: “In the chorus of greeting, each child’s cry was an individual tint for him. In sum the polyphony formed a rainbow. His eyes wavered on the warm edge of tears.” (The Centaur, p. 90) It is obvious that Chiron loves his students and they love him too.


Chiron inhaled; air like honey expanded the spaces of his chest; his students completed the centaur. They fleshed his wisdom with expectation. The wintry chaos of information within him, elicited into sunlight, was struck through with the young colours of optimism. […] the faces scattered in the deep green shade like petals after rain, were unanimously hushed and attentive. (The Centaur, p. 92)
The atmosphere of the chapter describing Chiron and his students is very light and bright compared with the atmosphere of Caldwell’s lesson. In one and the other cases the atmosphere is created with the help of an appropriate diction. For instance, in the chapter describing Chiron’s lesson the reader finds the following words and phrases: silver firs, Olympian blue, bloom, indiscriminate green, swift metallic song, speed of joy, light, fitful breeze, sun, warmer, white temple steps, hot marble, a great chestnut tree, honey, wisdom, optimism and love (The Centaur, pp. 87-92). At the same time, Caldwell’s lesson is described with the help of the following diction: fear, paralysed victim, frightened children, humiliated teacher, sarcastic tones, dread, pain, awed daze, electric colours, dumb, monkey chatter, mute faces, poison, bastards, death, lechery, dull, blood, larva, disgust, torture, patch- coloured panic, mad mess, terror, insolence, phlegm, stable, sickening confusion, bastard beast, and horror (The Centaur, pp. 32-45).
It is needless to mention all the cases where the words and the phrases presented above are used in the text, their effect is still tremendous. By comparing these two episodes it becomes evident that the author wants to stress the terrible chaos of the present day American life by juxtaposing it with harmonious divine past. Chiron’s students are educated, respectful and civilized people while Caldwell’s pupils as well as the school’s principal are brutal, mediocre, and narrow-minded. Moreover, it is obvious that the Olinger School is an ordinary American school; consequently, the reader implies that the situation in America itself is quite similar to that of Olinger, as schools always reflect the spirit of the country. Thus, Updike portrays the ubiquitous chaos of contemporary America, depreciation of moral values, domination of club-law and people’s indifference.
In his article “Rewriting the American Wasteland: John Updike’s The Centaur” Sukhbir Singh remarks that similarly to T. S. Eliot, Updike depicts the widespread religious, moral, and social squalor in contemporary America through symbols selected from the common life abound with chaos: “ugly rocks, stale water, vomiting volcanoes”, “dirty old light bulbs”, “dead meat”, “old bones”, “savage darkness”, “pile of stones”, “broken bottles”, “broken umbrellas”, “black cracks”, “junk heap”, and “heaps of ash” (p. 61).
Apart from portraying social and spiritual chaos in contemporary America, Updike depicts the chaos of material things. The author believes that the habit of piling up a great number of unnecessary objects reflects the same mess taking place in people’s minds. The best example of such chaos is Hummel’s garage. It is similar to a cave; it is deep and dark. Hummel’s helpers are one-eyed monsters called Cyclopes. And all the space of the garage is stuffed with millions of objects: