Revolutionary Road

In Chapter 6, April reaches her breaking point. Frank adds insult to injury with his comment about wishing April had aborted their child. Contextually speaking, the sentence is ambiguous. Though most will understand Frank to mean he wishes April had aborted the recent pregnancy, it is simultaneously possible to understand that he meant the first pregnancy, which would have radically changed the trajectory of their lives. It is best to understand Frank’s statement as signifying both scenarios since Frank is not only frustrated with their current circumstances but his life in general. If he meant the first pregnancy, then Frank is wishing that he and April had never come together, an even greater condemnation than John’s. Frank’s chauvinism and egotism keep him blind to April’s emotional state, and he misses her breaking point completely. That April begins to behave like the quintessential suburban wife and mother the day after a horrible fight should have made Frank question her behavior, but he was so pleased with her performance that he couldn’t tell theatricality from reality, especially since the theatrical paralleled his greatest wish.

In Chapter 7, the novel reaches its climax when April goes through the abortion alone. Chapters 8 and 9 then form the denouement. April has just finished the performance of a lifetime, playing the content suburban wife and mother perfectly. After Frank leaves, April enters a calm and focused psychological state. While she prepares for her abortion, she remembers a significant episode from her childhood. The reader is reminded that April grew up separated from her parents, only seeing them every so often when they would visit her or she them. The scene is a type of foreshadowing, hinting that her children will have a similar childhood since Frank sends Jennifer and Michael to live with his brother following April’s death. However, there is a moment of hope in such a bleak scene. When April’s father leaves, he gives her a small, white horse. It came from a liquor bottle, most likely from a bottle of White Horse blended Scotch, but its significance is not diminished by this fact because Yates was careful to select this symbol rather than using another brand of liquor. A white horse more often than not bears divine or heroic significance; in April’s case, the reader might consider Pegasus from Greek myth. When April’s father gives her the horse and says, “and you can keep it forever” (311), he is endowing his daughter with strength, especially of character, and with wings that will allow her to transcend the world around her. This transcendence could have come about from defying Women’s Roles in Post-World War II America and eschewing American Suburbia and the American Dream, but Frank metaphorically clipped her wings. As such, this transcendence comes about through her death. There is one more act of transcendence, though, that April performs before she attempts the abortion: She transcends petty vengeance and anger. She specifically burns any negative sentiments she had written down the night before and writes a simple goodbye letter to Frank so that Frank will be able to move on with his life should the worst-case scenario transpire.

Chapter 8 becomes a whirlwind of confusion and emotion as April dies and the other characters are temporarily pulled out of their shielded suburban lifestyles to face the type of reality Frank used to accuse them of ignoring. Shep’s military-like bearing and memories of his paratrooper days bring the discussion of masculinity back into focus for a moment. The dichotomy of the military man and the corporate man is discussed at greater length in the Themes section of this study guide: Masculinity Against the backdrop of 1950s Conformist Society. Suffice it to say, Shep feels a sense of competence during this moment of crisis that he hasn’t felt in a long time. The work of a paratrooper is more in line with Shep’s character than an engineer’s work. Aside from Shep, Frank is finally forced to acknowledge his wife’s perspective. Frank, who has been oblivious to April’s problems, realizes immediately what had happened. He realizes why April behaved so nicely that morning and that she went ahead with the abortion, knowing the possible consequences. The last scene of Chapter 8 is Frank walking the house with April’s memory/ghost. He witnesses her last moments, and the final tragedy is that Frank and April finally come together as a married couple after her death.

Chapter 9 serves to wrap up the semi-loose ends from previous chapters. Life goes on as Milly mentions on Page 322, and that is the primary takeaway and final criticism the reader can glean from the story. Despite one’s best efforts to hide from the grim aspects of life in the shadows of American suburbia, death will continue to take place and life will move on. Thus, it is of no surprise that Shep returns to his life, still harboring a small crush on April but also a newfound respect for Milly who continues to live courageously, whereas he views April’s actions as cowardly. Milly tells the Braces that Frank is courageous, but in Shep’s eyes, Frank has become just a shell of a man: “How could a man be courageous when he wasn’t even alive?” (331). Nevertheless, Frank has returned to a bachelor lifestyle, something which he had been craving since the birth of his daughter. This brings the novel back to an allusion to the play from Part 1, Chapter 1. With April’s death, an aspect of the novel parallels the plot of The Petrified Forest in that one character’s death brings about another’s dream. In The Petrified Forest, Alan Squier purposefully dies by suicide by antagonizing the mobster, Duke Mantee. Alan had just changed his will so that Gabby Maple (April’s character with the Laurel Players) will inherit his money. With Alan’s money, she can finally fulfill her dream of going to France and pursuing the arts. In the case of Revolutionary Road that ending isn’t quite as altruistic or romantic: Frank gets his bachelor life back but at a horrible price.