Quotes from Revolutionary Road

*Warning: Contains Some Spoilers* 

“He felt as if he were sinking helplessly into the cushions and the papers and the bodies of his children like a man in quicksand” (Yates 59). 

     Watching Frank’s downfall was really sad. He loved April, he wanted to be true to her and get along with her, but their relationship was slowly falling apart. I thought that this quote really explained what Frank was feeling and going through.  

“You’ll be finding yourself. You’ll be reading and studying and taking long walks and thinking. You’ll have time. For the first time in your life you’ll have time to find out what it is you want to do, and when you find it you’ll have the time and the freedom to start doing it” (Yates 114). 

April says all this to Frank about wanting to move to Europe, and I think it was all just talk. April is a very strong character and strives for her own independence. For her, moving to Europe is the only way she could ever be self-reliant and work a job. She presents this to Frank, I think, as a way of manipulating him. Trying to convince him that Europe would be what he wanted too. 

“‘I’m pregnant, that’s all.’ ‘Jesus.’ His face obediently paled and gaped into the look of a man stunned by bad news, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it that way for long: an exultant smile was already struggling up for freedom from his chest” (Yates 219). 

I saw this as a huge counterpoint in the story. April is very opposed to having this child, and Frank on the other hand is very excited about it, but trying hard not to show it. He knows April doesn’t want to have this child. April is upset because it is going to ruin their plans to go to Europe and the nonchalant way she presents this is almost painful because as the reader I know the way it is affecting her. 

“‘I don’t love you and I never really have, and I never really realized it until this week, and that’s why I’d just as soon not do any talking right now” (Yates 293). 

The blatant and plain way April says this to Frank is so heart-wrenching and sad. I love April’s honesty, but sometimes I think she was too flagrant about it. She is really hurting Frank and she acts like she doesn’t care. 

“But from there on Howard Givings heard only a welcome, thunderous sea of silence. He had turned off his hearing aid” (355). 

I loved this ending to the book. I had never expected the story to end this way, I never expected the story to end with the Givings lives instead of the Wheelers. I loved the way the book sort of ended in a silence, since there is a lot of yelling and shouting throughout the story. Overall not the ending I was expecting, but I loved it even more because of that.