The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield

The Home-Maker

by Dorothy Canfield
Harcourt-Brace & Co., 1924
Reprint 1996, Academy Chicago Publishers
320 pages

Back of the book blurb:

Although this novel first appeared in 1924, it deals in an amazingly contemporary manner with the problems of a family in which both husband and wife are oppressed and frustrated by the roles that they are expected to play. Evangeline Knapp is the perfect, compulsive housekeeper, while her husband, Lester, is a poet and a dreamer. Suddenly, through a nearly fatal accident, their roles re reversed: Lester is confined to home in a wheelchair and his wife must work to support the family. The changes that take place between husband and wife, parents and children, are both fascinating and poignant. The characters are brought to life in a vivid, compelling way in a powerful novel more relevant now than when it was first published. The Home-Maker is one of those "time lost" novels whose recovery will entertain and intrigue whole new generations of readers.

My thoughts:

From the very beginning, that old expression "You’ve come a long way, Baby!" kept running through my mind. Strict, inflexible ideals of 1920’s society dictated ‘appropriate’ familial roles. A wife was expected to remain home and attend to all domestic concerns, while her husband ventured out into the world to provide for his family. Adhering to these ideals was virtually draining the life from the Knapp family. My heart ached for Evangeline (Eva) Knapp, her husband Lester, and for their children, as each one strove to fulfill these expectations.

Canfield starts by focusing on Eva, who is utterly oppressed in her role as a home-maker:

“What was her life? A hateful round of housework, which, hurry as she might, was never done. How she loathed housework! The sight of a dishpan full of dishes made her feel like screaming out. And what else did she have? Loneliness; never-ending monotony; blank, gray days, one after another, full of drudgery. No rest from the constant friction over the children’s carelessness and forgetfulness and childishness! How she hated childishness!" (page 47)

Lester, a poet at heart, is equally unfulfilled in his office job at Willing’s Emporium.

“…the accursed matter of punctuality had once more frozen out a human relationship. He never had time to know his children, to stalk and catch that exquisitely elusive bird-of-paradise, their confidence. Lester had long ago given up any hope of having time enough to do other things that seemed worth while, to read the books he liked, to meditate, to try to understand anything. But it did seem that in the matter if his own children…” (page 70)

The two elder children, weak and timid, suffer from various physical ailments, while Stephen, the youngest, is robust, wild and utterly unmanageable. These physical ailments, from Eva’s eczema to Lester’s digestive troubles, seem to serve as an indicator of hard times ahead.

“[Eva’s eczema] was spreading. It was worse. It would never be any better. It was like everything else.” (page 46)

The situation reaches a crisis when Lester loses his job and contemplates suicide. On the way home, an accident occurs that leaves Lester confined to a wheelchair. Eva must get a job to support the family. What follows is Canfield’s masterful portrayal, in clear, simple prose, of how each family member responds to this change of situation. As health concerns gradually fade, all seem to come truly alive for the first time. The insight into the effects of societal pressure is breath-taking.

My rating for The Home-Maker is a perfect 5/5.