Point of View

The primary point of view for Revolutionary Road is that of the ironic, omniscient narrator but the point of view shifts between characters to heighten dramatic moments and themes. For example, rather late in the novel and through the device of a flashback, the reader learns about April Wheeler's distant relationship with her own father as a child—a relationship characterized by alcoholic abandonment. The shift to April's point of view reveals a side to her character that is crucial to the novel's development—the deep-seated need to please the dominant male in her life (her husband, Frank) and her tendency to act alone on her own impulses that eventually leads to her botched abortion attempt, uncontrolled bleeding and death.

By shifting between the points of view of the various characters, the author contrasts the interior life of the Wheelers with the lives of...