Is Ethan Frome Still Relevant In Today's Society

Ethan Frome in relation to divorce and suicide Books are seen as controversial for their content in relation to the time period they are released and, eventually, how they reflect the attitude of today’s society. Some are controversial due to obscene and figurative language that may make the reader uncomfortable, others for their forward thinking or radical ideals, and more yet for minutely too much description of sexual activity. Even as society has modernized, and become more adept to hearing absurd actions and phrases, the books remain controversial because the ideas still reflect. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, was controversial in its time because of content that reflects two issues still prominent in today’s society: thoughts of divorce and suicide. There are entire archives of reasons why couples seek for divorce and why marriages do not work out as initially supposed. Ethan and Zeena’s relationship encapsulated the top three reasons why people get divorced today: young age, little education, and low income (How Common). While they didn’t …show more content…
Its content, in relation to those two subjects, still cause a reader to look within themselves and the society around them to draw conclusions; most likely answering the questions of why so many people decide to commit to suicide or divorce. Wharton describes the issues in tiers, the more outrightly written, the more commonly spoken in modern society. The depiction of personal and marital unhappiness is stated openly, showing how common it is for someone to feel distraught about their situation. The idea of divorce is also stated concretely to Ethan himself, but not avidly spoken to those surrounding him, the subject is too sensitive and potentially harmful to more than one person. Suicide is only actively spoken about once, when Mattie and Ethan decide to commit the act; much like suicide in reality is only spoken of once someone