Honors Blog

The main theme in Revolutionary Road was definitely the American dream. It tells the story of an average couple in the 1950's. They have two wonderful children, Frank Wheeler, the husband and one of two of the main characters in this book, has a decent job that pays the bills, and they live in a wonderful little house in the suburbs. The problem was probably that they thought too much of themselves. They were young when they got married and still had a thirst for thrill and adventure, which is not something that can hold together a healthy family. April Wheeler, Frank's wife, seemed to always want to find distractions. She wanted to find a hobby, or something that she was good at that would distract her from what she thought was a pretty pathetic life.

"It's a disease. Nobody thinks or feels or cares anymore; nobody gets excited or believes in anything except their own comfortable little God Damn mediocrity." This is a quote from April. The book begins with a scene at a play where April played an important role. Part way through the play, one of the characters messed up one of their lines, which brought the rest of the actors down and practically ruined the whole play. April was depressed and felt a strong desire to do something different with her life. She has realized at 29 that she is not where she wants to be and that she never really saw herself as a housewife in the first place. Because of this, distracts herself with different activities, until one day she decides that she wants to move to Europe with her family, where all the excitement is.

After an argument that Frank and April get into the night of the play, Frank desperately seeks an escape as well. Frank then decides to distract himself by having an affair with a woman from work named Maureen. They both have a feeling that they are dull and try to get away from that. They try to find a deeper meaning in life. They live their life believing that there is always something better around the corner, and somewhere along the way, they realize how unrealistic this is for a couple with children and a suburban life. They believed that "if you don't try at anything, you can't fail... it takes back bone to lead the life you want."

April and Frank's vanity and their strong desire to get something more out of life led them to both having affairs and eventually killed April. They were finally getting their old life full of thrill and excitement back when they began to make plans to move to Paris, France. They were forced to snap back to reality when April gets pregnant with a third child. They argue over whether she should have an abortion and things begin to get difficult for them. April is selfish and wants to lead a life that she cannot live anymore because it would be irresponsible for her to do so. Frank wants her to keep the child and is even considering forgetting about Paris after he is offered a promotion at his office job. They both begin to see other people from the stress of being with each other, and finally. April decided to have an abortion herself causing her to bleed to death.

April and Frank wanted what they could not have. They were not satisfied with the life they had and when it came to materialistic things and a popular social status along with an exciting life, they simply could not get by with what they had. They needed more to be happy, and their vanity brought them troubles in their marriage and ended April's life. That is why the theme of the American Dream is so important in this book. The idea that nobody is every really satisfied with what they have and that you can never have enough because there is always someone out there who has more will always be among American and the world everywhere.

"You want to play house, you got to have a job. You want to play very nice house, very sweet house, then you got to have a job you don't like. Great. This is the way ninety-eight-point-nine percent of the people work things out..."