Revolutionary Road Essay

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Living Young, Wild and Meek In the novel Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, Yates portrays some of the characters in his novel as meek and wild. He opens his novel with a quote by John Keats that says: “Alas! When passion is both meek and wild.” Yates uses this quote to foreshadow what is to come in his novel. The quote shows that his characters will embody the traits of being flawed, meek, and wild in their daily lives. In addition, the word, “alas” signals that there will be a resignation that the characters will experience about their fates. Frank and April are both passionate people, and in fact it is possible to be both meek and wild at the same time. They are passionately unhappy and disillusioned with their lives. Throughout the novel, Frank and April exemplify the trait of meekness. Both of these characters lack the courage to do what they truly want and desire. They are trapped by one another and are unable to tell the other their true feelings because they are too meek to do so. For example, Frank lacks the courage to quit his job. He hates it, he feels it is boring and uneventful. “I work in the office. Actually its sort of a stupid job. I mean there’s nothing interesting about it” (197). The only way which Frank eventually found pleasure in his work was through Maureen Grube, and having an affair with her: “That was all it took. With a moist little whimpering groan she turned and pressed herself into his arms, offering up her mouth” (102). Frank has an ongoing affair, with her and always feels guilty right after; however, not until the end of the novel does Frank muster up the courage to tell April about it. When Frank was a child he vowed never to become like his dad. Frank never truly admired his dad and hence didn’t want to follow in his footsteps. Yet, “Frank walked into the shadow of the Knox Building with the ghosts of that
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