Revolutionary Road

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-7

Part 2, Chapters 1-3

Part 2, Chapters 4-6

Part 3, Chapters 1-5

Part 3, Chapters 6-9

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Essay Topics

What significance does Robert E. Sherwood’s play, The Petrified Forest, have in the novel, and where do their themes merge and diverge?

How does the novel address the myth of the happy suburban American family?

How is masculinity and the definition of manhood presented in the novel?

How is femininity and women’s role in Cold War America portrayed and criticized?

In terms of the hermeneutic circle, why was the Wheelers’ plan to move to Europe doomed to fail? Why was April doomed to die?

What events lead to the culmination of April’s lost identity in Part 3, Chapter 3?

How is intellectualism portrayed in the novel, and what part does it play in nonconformity?

Conformity is a broad topic in the novel. Can it be said that Frank fully conformed in the end? Why or why not?

Though a subtheme, how is John Givings’s mental health portrayed, and how does it fit with the notion of refusing to conform?

10.

Compare and contrast Frank and Shep, and Milly and April. How are they similar and dissimilar to each another? Which, if any, conform to 1950s American societal expectations?