There are a few themes of "sin-like" deeds that people do in this book. The leading male in the story (Richard) explains an event with a mistress he had that involved nakedness.
And there was a sexual-reference at the beach with Joan towards a naked man on the beach.
Is John Updike saying that nakedness always= naughty/bad/sin?
The repetitiveness of nakedness made a nice parallel structure throughout the story. From the title to the end the word "naked" was ringing throughout the story.
There was one phrase that really caught our attention that was repeated a few times throughout the story:
[Richard is talking/thinking] "I felt her heart in the fatty casing of her body plump up."
This gave such a nice hint of the emotion he felt in the story. We really enjoyed it. Did that last line that we quoted also ring in your head? Very impactful!
It seemed that it was also used in a parallel structure sense like the word "naked."
Girls, sounds like a good story. I don't quite remember that one, but I did read the collection many years ago. I like the sentence you quoted. Try using more quotes in your analysis/interpretation.
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