The Revolutionary Road - Book Report/Review Example

The marriage with all of its problems and dramas form the backbone of the plot of the novel. Yates focused on the nature of the individual characters as the main factor as to how relationships are being affected. The concepts of self-worth, pretensions, truthfulness, and values about life have become the main theme of the story. To further the theme, he incisively includes other couples with their own struggles and views about life. In this case, let us look at the case of Giving's family. In order to clearly identify the role that they play to promote the theme of the story, it is relevant to look at their characters as opposed to the Wheelers.

Central to the story is the couple Ann and Frank Wheeler. They are young couples in their late twenties with two children who follow the great suburban migration that characterized America in the mid-1950s. April Wheeler is a 29-year-old aspiring actress, unsatisfied with her marriage, and desperately searches for a way to make a change. She engaged in a community theatre production which turned out to be a flop. Her desire to escape her current situation takes the form of vicious arguments with Frank and the plan to move out to Paris.

Frank is a graduate of Columbia University who works at a nebulous job which he hates at Knox Business Machines in New York City. Just like his wife, he has high regard for himself and also yearning for a better life. He is deluded with his belief and ambition to become a better person but still unable to figure out the right mechanism on how to achieve his goals.Throughout the story, Yates was able to distinguish the manner in which they view life. Together they pretend and consider themselves above ordinary people in their community.

They share the belief that they deserve and are capable of achieving more than what they have. The inclusion of marriage in the story leads the path to bring out the truth in them as well as to determine how they value life. Marriage is not always an easy thing, even more, difficult when you dream about a life of adventures. After some time of exhibiting self- deception in trying to live with Frank's belief, April saw the loss of her soul. She is the type of person who cannot live a dishonest life.

She always needs to follow her truth and not scared of it. She demonstrated truthfulness in her struggle to move from a place that she thinks she does not belong to. Frank, on the other hand, is a man who doesn't know who he is. Despite not wanting his present condition, he is trying to live life. He is an intelligent man but is scared to go against the system set up for a person like him. The regard for self-worth also becomes apparent as they drift away in trying to satisfy their own desires.

These views and beliefs exhibited by the Wheelers are further demonstrated by the characters from the Givings family. The characters portrayed by these couples are reflections of those by the Wheelers. However, the interchange on the nature of characters shows balance in terms of gender. As with the Wheelers, the individual nature of this couple is the primary factor causing them to clash. Mrs. Helens appears to be the ostentatious character as she endures and tries to make herself be a part of a respectable community.

Yet despite her hard work, she is straddled with a husband who would rather turn off his hearing aid than listen and with a son who disappoints.