In
both Cather’s and Steinbeck’s stories, the main characters are trying to run
from their lives. They are tired of their monotonous lives and they feel they
don’t fit into their designated “roles” and expectations society puts on them.
In Paul’s case, he knew he couldn’t live up to his father’s expectations and
couldn’t fit the idea of a teenage boy by societies eyes. In Elisa’s case, she
doesn’t like her life of a housewife, someone who plants flowers every day. She
feels she is a very strong woman and that she shouldn’t be confined to the role
“society” gives her. At the end of the story, Elisa asks her husband whether or
not women participate in the “fights”. This is her attempt to change her
lifestyle.
Ultimately,
both attempts to change their lives fail. Elisa rationalizes her thought of
fighting as crazy, and has happiness in the fact that she will drink wine at
dinner that night. In Paul’s case, he still feels excluded even though he tried
his dream lifestyle of an affluent New York life.
Cather
and Steinbeck are trying to tell us that there will be outsiders in society,
and not all will “fit the mold”.
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