This book runs on the slow, but beautifully metaphorical words written by Richard Yates. It is almost as if every sentence he wrote has a deeper, underlying meaning than the one that pertains to the story. Through one couple, the Wheelers, Yates captured the mindset of an American era and the struggles/battles of many relationships to this day. I want to start by talking about April and Frank Wheeler separately.
April Wheeler was a hard character to crack open. Yates did not allude much to her early years, but what was said revealed a sad story of a neglected child. Which, as you would assume, is the type of parent she ended up turning into through the paralyzing roots of narcissism. April Wheeler was an actress and without trying to put down any actresses, it lead her to be rather self consumed in a dramatic way. She had a way of provoking Frank into these fights where she always claimed the victim, even though she was quite the opposite. I have seen people do this in my own life, and have even caught myself doing this type of argument to my own loved ones. April would assume the fault of Frank's actions or words by claiming she pushed him to that point. However, by doing this she knows deep down that it is only cementing the blame onto Frank himself. When you look at it from Frank's point of view though, he does indeed play a fraction of the victim since his own wife is playing these uncalled for mind games with him. April is constantly fighting with not only Frank, but herself as well. When the play goes poorly in the very beginning, you see an immature April take all the blame on her shoulders and push away everyone else in what she calls, 'shame'. But it is not shame that made her wanted to hide from her friends. She is simply taking the blame out of embarrassment of the failed play and the behavior she displayed. As an actress, April is a perfectionist, which only comes naturally when you engage in an art form that uses your body as the instrument. She never wanted to be the housewife she ended up becoming, but as a perfectionist she then decided that she would be the best housewife ever. You see moments when she is running the household so smoothly and has everything prepared for Frank and other times when she is just simply instigating Frank into one of his rages. Whenever she does mess up though or make Frank made she internalizes it and blames herself and beats herself up for the problem. April after consistently blaming herself and taking her anger out on Frank only ended up pushing him away. But that is only some of there problems.
Frank as a boy was told by everyone who knew him how great he would become. These expectations did not lead anywhere, but instead imbedded themselves into his brain where there would continue to eat at him. When you first meet Frank he struggles with controlling his anger as well. Sometimes it wasn't quite clear what made him angry, but he would blow up in a rage and start yelling. Throughout the book, he contained his anger better and better as he found ways to relax (an affair). Frank struggled with finding ways to display his masculinity. April was a very strong-minded person, so he had a trying time to figure out someway to show the world he was the man in the household. He had a strong moral compass when it came to life or death and April, but after failing to reach all his life's expectations he had to lower himself to cheating. The woman he cheated on April with was in essence just a naive girl in a big city. When he was with her he was the man he wanted to be, meaning she would listen to him and she looked up to him. April was too far past looking up to Frank, she had seen a dark side to him and lost respect in some ways. However, when I read this book I felt more connected with Frank's character than Aprils because he was clearly much more grounded than she'd ever be.
Frank and April had three children, none of which either of them wanted. Frank did a better job at parenting, since he did not come from a broken household and was able to show his children affection. The both of them saw children as something that would tie them down and Frank and April were always looking for a way out. They wanted so much more for themselves than the life that everyone else lived, known as the 'American Dream' and the 'Nuclear Family'. Typical was not how they saw themselves ending up. In the beginning of the book, you learn how after finding out for the first time that she was pregnant, April had planed to give herself an abortion. Frank however, stopped her from this as it is not the right thing to do. After they decided to move to Europe and live off of April's wages as a secretary while Frank was 'finding himself', April found out she was pregnant for the third time. This time without telling Frank she got what she needed to perform the abortion. April reasons that the abortion is the right thing to do, so that they can get the life they alway wanted in Europe. Frank sees this as April chipping away at his masculinity. How can he go home everyday and face the fact that is wife does not and did not want to bear his child? How can he let his own wife illegally mutilate herself knowingly? In the end, April performs the abortion but it is too late in the pregnancy and she ends up killing herself, which I believe she knew would happen. The night before this April told Frank she never loved him and the morning of, she sent him to work with a kiss and love. April never grew during the book, she sank lower and lower into her own fallacies and eventually it was too late to help her. I believe Frank grew for the better. He managed himself much better than April, he even confessed to having an affair and stood up and took care of his children after April died.
April and Frank were constantly waiting for their big break. They never realized that you cannot wait for it, you have to make it for yourself. After April died in the book, Frank slumped into a depression, which most would do. It caused a thought to cross my mind. Reading this book is like going through life and never realizing when you saw or did something for the last time. They never (for lack of a better word), seized life. They merely let it go on without them noticing.
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