THE COLD WAR BETWEEN SPOUSES IN JOHN UPDIKE’S SHORT STORY DEAR ALEXANDROS

John Updike is considered as one of the greatest American fiction writers of his generation. His fictional marriages take sharpness from their nation’s ongoing rivalry with the Soviet Union. He uses the Cold War to illustrate this difficulty of marital peace in a world characterized by deceit, suspicion and unwillingness to negotiate. The story demonstrates how the connection between the cold war and domestic life coincides with a thematic pattern of competition and isolation. Through the story one can understand the portrayal of marriage that emerges probably has at least as many shadows as warm light, although that is ultimately what makes the couple seem more honest than not and gives them the dramatic tension they need to succeed as short stories.