Suburban husband (Reading) Week 7

The American Cold War Policies of the 1950s fostered a socio-political impasse between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Domestic ideologies during this period included:
- Paranoia
- Propaganda
- Surveillance
- Infringement of civil liberties
Alan Nadel describes this environment as creating a “national narrative” of containment affecting all social, economic, and spatial dimensions of life in America (17).
This narrative served to maintain American superiority culturally, economically, and technologically.

Main Thesis: Yates’s novel serves as a snapshot of the Cold War national order, depicting the transformation of the postwar American male into an emasculated suburban consumer from the former heroic “GI Joe” image of masculinity.
Plot Context: The story illustrates a new suburban lifestyle prevalent in the mid-1950s, driven by conformity and progress against the backdrop of Cold War fears, particularly the threat posed by Communists.
Revolutionary Road highlights the tension between traditional notions of masculinity associated with frontier valor and the emerging norms of consumerism and conformity in suburban life.

A paradox exists in the suburban identity:
- Desire for community and security juxtaposed with the need for individuality and mobility continues to impact the American psyche into the 21st century.
Spatial and political borders within suburbs dissolve, leading to economic and cultural cross-pollination while sustaining a facade of communal individualism.

Arelene Skolnick’s Argument: The idealized family life associated with the suburbs links both to the Victorian past and counterculture communes (51).
The historical significance implies a longing for the “freedom” associated with the frontier, emphasizing a domesticated ideal that has roots in earlier American identity.

White Plight: This term encapsulates the anxieties experienced by white suburban men feeling disenfranchised, struggling to reconcile their privileged status with societal expectations.
Yates’s novel articulates how Cold War America’s political and economic discourses redefined male identity within the confines of suburbia, stripping away their former heroic traits and replacing them with consumer-driven personas.

The term “organization man” refers to the new masculine identity that emerged from the need for a compliant workforce in the evolving American economy.
- Characteristics include: Corporate loyalty, consumerism distinguished from the rugged individualism of pre-war American men (Corber 32).
With the shift to a service-oriented economy, traditional masculine identities associated with skilled labor diminished, leading to a crisis in male identity.

Yates portrays the suburban setting as a site of emasculation, where men like Frank Wheeler are pressured to cultivate familial and consumer identities akin to traditional female roles.
These emerging identities are framed by expectations to actively engage in child-rearing and household management (Corber 5-6).
Frank Wheeler exemplifies the internal conflict of adhering to these prescribed roles while resisting his emasculated identity.

Housing Developments: The proliferation of suburban tract housing, designed to reinforce the Cold War domestic ideal, served not as a space of empowerment but rather as a means of domestic containment.
The ideological narrative expected men to define themselves through consumption, stripping them of their previous power associated with labor.

Frank’s identity crisis reflects a broader societal tension, showcasing the struggles of conformity versus individuality.
- Personal Struggles: Frank confronts the emasculating forces of suburban life while attempting to reclaim a lost sense of masculinity through manual labor and romanticized notions of his past.
His actions are highlighted during moments, such as his ineffective rebellion against domestic responsibilities, showcasing his failure to regain agency in a world that limits masculinity.

Symbolic Endings: The narrative culminates in tragedy when Frank’s inability to adapt leads to the disintegration of his family and identity. April Wheeler's demise symbolizes the casualties of Cold War conformity, sealing their fate in a stifling suburban landscape.
Frank’s eventual return to urban life offers a hollow liberation that lacks the vibrancy of his former self, emphasizing the lament over a lost frontier spirit.
Yates’s narrative critiques the enduring impacts of Cold War culture on masculinity, emphasizing an ongoing struggle for identity amid the suffocating pressures of consumer capitalism.

Numerous texts are referenced to support the analysis, including:
- Faludi, Susan – highlights the psychological impacts of societal expectations on masculinity.
- Corber, Robert J. – explores masculinity in the context of Cold War societal dynamics.
- Various other sources provide historical, cultural, and economic context surrounding post-war America, suburbanization, and the evolution of masculine identity.