20th century writers dealt with many issues and themes throughout their writing. The authors that I have chosen to look at are Updike, Beatti, Rothke and Plath. These authors and their works will each be evaluated by how they deal with the subjects love, death, loss and passing of time. The short story Separating by John Updike deals with the subject of love and I also believe it deals with the themes quest for identity and alienation and nausea.
The story talks about how two parents are going through the process of telling their children that they are going to separate. This is important to them because they do love their children very much; they want to make the timing perfect so it is easier on the children. The father and mother seemed as though they needed to find out who they really were without their children. They did all things for the kids.
They said that they loved one another but yet they didnt make each other happy. I think that they just werent sure what made them happy. Weekend a short story by Ann Beattie deals with the subject of loss of time and the same theme that Updikes story dealt with quest for identity . I chose the subject of time because at first they loved one another and had a good relationship and then time passed and they ended up in such a weird place in their relationship.