The Role Of April Wheeler In Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road was a book written by Richard Yates, published in 1961. Revolutionary Road takes place in the 1950s and focuses on the two main characters, Frank and April Wheeler and their hopes and dreams for their future lives. Revolutionary Road takes you through the confusing, ups and downs of the Wheelers life, with other characters such as the Campbells, the Wheelers neighbors, and the Givings, the Wheelers real estate agent and her family. In Revolutionary Road you see April and Frank living post world war II, trying to obtain the “American Dream”, but is really more like an American nightmare. Throughout the book, you get to learn about and understand each of the characters and what makes them who they are. A major theme that occurs …show more content…
During World War II, women were able to work due to the absentee of men, but when they returned from the war, they were sent back to being housewives. According to Lynn White in Educating our Daughters, “The curriculum for female students should prepare women to foster the intellectual and emotional life of her family and community”. Women were limited to very little, as you could tell from the character of April Wheeler. Aprils role in Revolutionary Road was to take care of the house and the children. In todays world, to be a woman means so much more. As of 2015 women have the right to do everything and anything that they want to. Women are not subjected to staying in the house watching after their children and cleaning all day. A woman of todays world is entitled to a job, she can buy a house, she can purchase a car, whatever a woman wants, she can obtain. But what it means to be a woman is more than just being able to have rights to everything a man has. I believe that to be a woman is to take the housewife woman out of the 1950s and to take the right-to-everything woman of 2015 and put them together. A woman should be able to provide for her family in the same way a man can, while also being that nurturing parent and housewife. To be a woman means to be loving, caring, being able to provide, being able to protect you, and to be able to be trusting. I believe that the role of a woman is to be superwoman, to …show more content…
Both April and Frank are so consumed in their lives and trying to defy the American Dream, that they almost neglect their children. They send their children off to their neighbors, the Campbells for them to sit and watch TV and play with the Campbells children. As an attempt to escape the American Dream April decides that the family should move to Paris so that they can live out their own dreams, but Frank isn’t too sure about it. The kids weren't too fond of moving and leaving their friends behind. Often times April would show her true colors and what he main focus was, which wasn’t the children.“In the afternoons she would hug them and ask them questions in a rush of ebullience that suggested Christmas Eve, and then her eyes would go out of focus during their replies, and a minute later she’d be saying “Yes, darling, but don’t talk quite so much, okay? Give Mommy a break.” (146) April and Frank become so consumed in each other, they pay no attention to their children. Their children start to act out as a cry for attention and become almost baby-like. “It was hopeless for either child to try and get a word in edgewise. Michael found he could jiggle in his chair, repeat baby words over and over in a shrill idiot’s monotone or stuff his mouth with mashed potato and hang his jaws open, all without any adult reproof; Jennifer would sit very straight at the table and refuse to look at him,