John Updike The Persistence of Desire
Page: 561
“Already it was 1:29, and while he watched, the digits slipped again; another drop into the brimming void. He glanced around for the comfort of a clock with the face and gracious, gradual hands. A stopped grandfather matched the other imitation antiques.”
Clyde is acutely aware of time as it rushes onward. Each minute that the see flick away serves as a reminder that his life is passing. It is this awareness of time and life that leads him to grasp so tightly to his past; be that hometown, family doctor, or old relationships. The ‘imitation antiques’ represent the natural, yet false, attempt to retain that which is already gone.
John Updike The Persistence of Desire
Page: 568
“ ‘Clyde, I thought you were successful. I thought you had beautiful children. Aren’t you happy?’ ‘I am, I am; but’- the rest was so purely inspired its utterance only grazed his lips- ‘happiness isn’t everything.’”
Clyde realizes that while he has what he believed he needed to be happy, he is not satisfied with life. He feels that there must be something more to happiness then what he has, so Clyde clings to what had offered a feeling of fulfillment in the past. He realizes this all in a single moment while attempting to recreate his youthful happiness through old love.
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