Rabbit, Run - References To Other Works

References To Other Works

• Previously, Updike had written a short story entitled Ace In The Hole, and to a lesser extent a poem, Ex-Basketball Player, with similar themes to Rabbit Run.
• John Updike said that he wrote Rabbit, Run in response to Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and tried to depict "what happens when a young American family man goes on the road – the people left behind get hurt."
• The screenplay for 8 Mile by Scott Silver opens with a quote from Rabbit, Run: "If you have the guts to be yourself...other people'll pay your price," and the main character is nicknamed "Rabbit."
• The last song on the 8 Mile OST is called Rabbit Run, a song about writer's block from the perspective of rap artist Eminem.
• The philosopher Daniel Dennett makes extended reference to the Rabbit novels in his paper "The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity".
• The title matches the popular World War II-era song Run Rabbit Run.