The Home-maker (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Dorothy Canfield
- First Published: 1924
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: The 1920’s
- Setting: A town in the Midwestern United States
- Principal Characters: Evangeline (Eva) Knapp, Lester Knapp, Helen Knapp, Henry Knapp, Stephen Knapp, Jerome Willing, Nell Willing
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Child rearing or parenting, Family or family life, Parents and children, Suicide, Gender roles, 1920’s, Individuality, New England, Accidents, Lifestyles, Disabilities or physically challenged persons, Work or workers, Sales personnel, Accountants or accounting, Career women, Homemakers
- Locales: New England
Form and Content
The Home-maker, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (who published her fiction under her maiden name, Dorothy Canfield, and her nonfiction under her married name), explores the problems implicit in ascribing roles to individuals based on their gender, rather than on their specific talents, abilities, and desires. The turning point of the novel occurs when Lester Knapp loses his job in the accounting office at Willing’s Emporium. Devastated by this development, Lester contemplates suicide, but he must make his death look like an accident if Eva and the children...
[The entire page is 2162 words long]
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