Lust

Lust is a driving force in Updike's protagonist, Ben Turnbull, in Toward the End of Time. Lust seems to keep Ben alive. Ben's lust broke up his first marriage, driving him toward his second wife. Even though Ben is retired and elderly, his desire for women is constant. Whenever Ben watches his second wife, Gloria, he sees her in a lustful way and wants to have sexual intercourse with her. But whenever Gloria is away, Ben either fantasizes about bringing another woman into the house or actually sneaks another woman in. If neither of these options works, Ben resorts to his pornographic magazines. He pays to have a prostitute come to his house. The prostitute is in her twenties, at least forty years younger than Ben. After the prostitute leaves him because she is bored, Ben engages sexually relations with a teenage girl who has camped out on...