After watching and then reading 'Revolutionary Road' I thought another text which was worth looking at was Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' as although set slightly earlier and not strictly speaking in suburbia, I thought there were several comparisons. I therefore based my presentation on examining what these middle class aspirant characters felt about their lives - Was it a shallow existence? Was home and leisure promised in all the adverts 'a big fat lie?' I have chosen the book version of 'Revolutionary Road' which I believe has more subtleties and the 1985 film version of Death of Salesman as I think the flashbacks in the play are easier to understand visually on screen. Although Miller and Yates wrote fiction, it was interesting in researching background to discover that Miller wrote Willy Loman from a relative of his (Uncle Manny I believe) and Frank Wheeler was eerily like Yates himself - he was that man who went to Paris with his family.
I was particularly intrigued by the two characters who did not survive - April Wheeler and the salesman himself, Willy Loman. Was there something about them? Was their self deception too great? Studying both texts a striking element was a certain level of deception of most of the characters with a 'class as lifestyle' belief that a certain middle class respectibility would make everything wonderful when actually amongst some it breeds frustration and doubt, banality, dull work and constantly buying into the lifestyle.
Since Revolutionary Road has already been discussed previously, for those of you not familiar with Death of a Salesman, please look up a synoposis online. I found this one had a good summary:
http://summarycentral.tripod.com/deathofasalesman.htm
To give you a further idea, here are 2 useful Youtube clips.
In the first, Willy is playing cards with his friend and neighbour Charley. Willy's brother Ben appears - but is he real or a figment of his imagination, since he is everything Willy is not? There is a flashback outdoors, to when they could see countryside and the boys were in High School. What do you make of Ben's comments about walking into and out of the jungle?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY-FyfpELfg&feature=related
In the second, towards the end, in this powerhouse performance from John Malkovich, Biff understands who he is, cannot live the lie his father is making him live - but somehow Willy doesn't seem to understand...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY-FyfpELfg&feature=related
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