During his lifetime, Richard Yates was read and respected by other writers to a much greater degree than he was read by the general public. His 1961 novel, Revolutionary Road , sold well, and over the years, it continued to be widely known, mostly due to its being assigned in literature classes. But from 1961…
Tag: The Canal
The Canal by Richard Yates – Setting
The Last Days of World War II Yates does not say where the battle described in the story took place, but it is possible that it took place in Germany, given that it occurred in March of 1945 and involved American troops advancing against the Germans. The conflict that Yates describes has some similarity to…
The Canal by Richard Yates – Literary Devices
Point of View Point of view is the angle from which the action of the story is seen. In this case, the story is told in third-person, limited omniscient point of view. The story is told in the third person, and readers are given the inner thoughts of one character, but not the inner thoughts…
The Canal by Richard Yates – Themes
Memory Yates dramatizes in this story how individuals remember shared experiences (perhaps especially of war) in separate ways and how those different ways of remembering determine or express the person’s sense of self. Tom Brace selects from all his military experience in order to shape his story. Soldiers have many experiences in military service, but…
The Canal by Richard Yates – Characters
Nancy Brace Tom Brace is amazed to hear that Miller’s outfit had the leisure to sleep, since his canal crossing put him right into artillery fire. Nancy Brace, Tom’s wife, asks if his killing the artillery soldiers earned him a Silver Star. Brace dismisses Nancy’s question with a wink, patronizing her supposedly superficial focus on…
The Canal by Richard Yates – Summary
“The Canal” starts at a cocktail party in 1952. Two couples, the Millers and the Braces, are in the middle of a long conversation that has already been going on for about an hour when the story begins. Lew Miller and Tom Brace work for the same advertising firm. As the story opens, Lew Miller…