Revolutionary Road

With Chapter 4 begins the first real cracks in Frank’s resolve. The biggest and loudest obstacle is his colleague’s response to the plan because he raises some realistic considerations that Frank never contemplated: Why does he have to go to Paris to find himself, and what he is looking for? The questions frighten Frank. The reality of surrendering financial security for a Europe dream begins to hang over Frank’s conscience, and he is slowly becoming aware that he is not the person he has purported to be. The major catalyst behind this realization is that Frank finds he can be good at his job. He likes the praise he gets for doing a good job, and the enticement of more pay is one he cannot easily ignore, especially when the financial situation in Paris remains a complete unknown. Moreover, Frank becomes aware that he can feel moments of happiness in conformity, something of which he was not aware. During lunch and payday, the camaraderie he experiences with the other men from his office reminds him of similar sentiments he had as a soldier. There is no American institution that requires conformity as much as the military, and Frank’s fond memories of camaraderie with his fellow soldiers hint at his desire to seek Masculinity Against the Backdrop of 1950s Conformist Society.

With John Givings’s entrance in Chapter 5, the novel’s closest thing to an antagonist enters. Not only will John come to antagonize the Wheelers, especially Frank, but he also offers a counterpoint to the allure of American Suburbia and the American Dream. John was a productive member of society with an impressive resume: military veteran and professor of mathematics. However, at some point in his past, he wound up in psychiatric hospital. This is significant because John’s character represents the supposed irrationality of nonconformity to society. Though John exhibits eccentric behavior from time to time, the reader nevertheless questions his diagnosis of schizophrenia. In Chapter 5, for instance, his behavior, though perhaps too uncouth to be considered civilized, begs the question of why he was institutionalized. John questions Frank’s motives much like Frank’s colleague Jack Ordway. The only difference is that Jack does so from an acceptable social position as a friend and colleague, while Helen refers to John’s behavior as tactless. With this, John embodies the fool or jester archetype, a Shakespearean figure who speaks truths despite appearing irrational or foolish.

Aside from what John represents, he is also a catalyst for a dialectical analysis of American culture. Importantly, through his presence, Frank describes 1950s conformist culture as a “hopeless emptiness” (190), which causes John to pause and ponder. Of course, what exactly Frank means by a hopeless emptiness is left unexplained, as its deeper meaning is aphoristic. John’s mental health condition may be rooted in this hopeless emptiness, but Frank, though he has pronounced the diagnosis, does not suffer about it the way April does. Toward the end of the novel, it is revealed that the character trapped by the hopeless emptiness is April and no one else. This entrapment is discussed in further detail in Part 3, Chapter 7.

The events of Chapter 6 spark Frank’s undoing. The possibility of advancement is too great a temptation for Frank to surrender. As Frank increasingly imagines himself remaining with Knox, he begins to define himself along those parameters. What was once an unimportant, uninteresting job is slowly becoming, in the words of Bart Pollock, “something that could turn into a very challenging, very satisfying career for any man” (206). This brings us to Bart’s significance and role in the novel. Bart Pollock is almost a stock character: the quintessential American salesman. The entire luncheon with Frank is nothing more than a sales pitch to stroke Frank’s ego and motivate him to do more work, all for an unspecific possible promotion and a salary increase. Had Frank been at all committed to the Paris plan, he might not have swallowed Bart’s loose promise as wholly as he did. Frank is slightly aware of the similarities, at least physically, between his meeting with Bart and the one his father had years ago with Oat Fields. The similarities are enough to make the reader pause and remember that Frank’s father did not get the promotion he had hoped for. Hence, a red flag is raised that cautions Frank from fully accepting Bart’s offer. Ultimately, this scene is a red herring because Bart’s offer is legitimate, and Frank even ends up working for Bart directly following April’s death. Nevertheless, Frank’s excitement at the prospect of an increase in salary and a new position is enough to fully convince him that he does not want to go to Paris.

Much like the time when Frank slept with Maureen, the consequences of Frank’s actions (i.e., how to deal with Maureen at work and how to tell April about Bart’s offer) are negated by April’s words and actions. In the first instance, it was with a birthday party and the revelation of her plan to go to Europe. Now, April transforms Frank’s fear of disappointing her into a possible solution to their problems by revealing she is pregnant. Ever the opportunist, Frank does very little to assuage April’s fears because he never truly realizes April’s reasons for wanting to go to Paris; she is not seeking an escape from Connecticut or even the US but from the confines of her stultifying life. As such, Frank uses the opportunity to introduce his newly solidified desire to remain where they are, an idea that April finds untenable.