revolutionary road
As Richard Yates was at one time a speech writer for Robert Kennedy in the 1960s, it’s simply to be expected that his writing is superb, and he proved this in writing “Revolutionary Road.”
“Revolutionary Road” is a very well told story of two characters desperately trying to live a life of illusion for themselves but disguised as for one another. Frank Wheeler has created a persona that he tries to desperately convince himself and everyone around him is authentic by acting as if his dissatisfaction in life can simply be chalked up to his boring life in suburbia. His life, however, is supposedly so far removed from everyone else’s suburban existence. Because, after all, he can recognize conformity in 1950s America, so surely he must not be conforming along with everyone else, right? This illusion seems to unravel once he receives a promotion at work and starts sleeping with a secretary. Are you so different after all, Frank Wheeler?
And by the end of this tragic novel, April is so discontented with everything that’s led her to where she’s at, that she makes a fateful decision to give up. She is no longer concerned with attempting to remain within whatever illusion she’d once convinced herself of. She no longer wants any of it and she tragically realizes she’s never wanted it. The vision she had of Frank–the golden boy–has been uprooted through the lack of wanting for dreams and goals and she understands that he’s nothing like what she ever believed. But did she ever truly believe it? Or was it simply a constant attempt in convincing herself of a lie?
Something that stuck out to me so heavily was her statement to him that he’s “the most interesting person she’s ever met.” This deeply influenced Frank Wheeler in his early adulthood to continue living in delusion and believing in a person that he never truly was, ultimately putting down everyone else around him to build himself up. But it’s ultimately revealed that this was simply a statement that April said but never meant. She said it in a false attempt to make Frank feel special and she did just that but didn’t consider the consequences of false statements.
It’s an example of allowing life to lead you down a path, swept up in its current without ever considering if you’re really happy? Who are you? Do you really want this? I feel too many people live this sad reality. I don’t think many people live with utter intentionality and want to want something. It’s far too easy to get caught up in the incorrect person and live a life of misconception that you’ve created within your own mind. Waking up every morning and needing to convince yourself of your happiness.
This is a bleak book that demonstrates the disastrous phenomenon of failure to genuinely know one’s self and leading a life that isn’t yours.