*This is a first, I blogged twice in one day. Scroll down past this for another entry. :)
Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates published a book in 1961 called "Revolutionary Road". If you haven't read it, you should. At least see the movie.
A short synopsis:
Frank and April Wheeler live in the suburbs of Connecticut in the 1950's. They have two children and a "perfect life". They are living the American Dream, and yet, they're not happy. They're bored. They feel suffocated. And until they talk about it, they are living in a silent panic and turmoil within themselves. Once both characters realize and admit that they're both feeling the same way and they're simply more flamboyant and interesting than their neighbors, they decide to leave everything and travel the world together, along with their children....but they don't end up leaving in the end because they feel as if they're trapped. Although they long to break the mold, they end up realizing that society has sort of paralyzed them. It has a sad ending that I won't give away, but I will say that it's extremely disturbing. It's very controversial.
What's it really about?
The goal of the 1950's was to conform, which is scary in so many ways. Why? Because there's beauty in flaws and in something you've never seen before and can't describe. What's exciting about seeing the same thing every day? Not only that, but usually conformity is achieved when someone else is in control. I think it's pretty impressive that Yates saw what was going on and wrote about it as quickly as he did, but then again....he was a writer and he was clearly disturbed by a vanilla society. He could have been feeling suffocated himself. Maybe he wondered how everyone else whistled and smiled while getting on the train every day to go sit in a cubicle for hours and hours to pay for a home like everyone else's. Conformity is what everyone wanted after the war and depression, and I can't really blame them. Look at how the 40's went down. Plus, everyone yearns for a certain amount of stability; it's only natural. But then life happens anyway and you quickly realize that everything should be done in moderation and there's nothing human about being stable all the time and it's ok to have faults. Maybe if life is always stable, you aren't getting out and therefore aren't taking chances and living. Life can't always be stable, but very rarely is it always chaotic. There's no such thing as perfection, and so the very idea that people were striving for it, well that must have been a terrible feeling. Talk about feeling incompetent. It was unrealistic to take a bunch of people with souls and minds and sex drives and expect it to work out. Obviously. Look at all of the books and movies about this era. The interesting thing about Yates is that, like I said, he published it in 1961.
There is a lot of comfort in conformity, but what happens when you get too comfortable? I know what happens...just think about it. What really happens when a person gets too comfortable? Have you ever seen the movie "Happy Feet"? The penguin basically gets mushy brain and becomes depressed because he isn't out catching fish anymore, but instead, is simply opening his mouth while the zoo throws them directly into his beak. Where is the fun in that? Is it more about the catching of the fish than actually eating it?
Conforming is this: relinquishing something unique in order to become another that already exists. So it would only be natural to feel suffocated and even violated when you have relinquished the uniqueness that is you, right?
The reason why the book is disturbing is very simple: because the characters are in such serious turmoil about a life that appears to be perfect. Why is this disturbing? Contradictions are always unnerving-especially when talking about unfulfilled people behind a white picket fence. The idea that you can't even relax once you get to the top, is extremely unsettling.
But who said that's the top? That's the point. You should make your own top.
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