# XX explained — The Homemaker

> Chapter companion for The Homemaker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

## What happens

Evangeline Knapp receives a promotion to head of her department and a significant salary increase, leading to a family celebration. That night, she reflects on her husband Lester's goodness and her own past ingratitude, contrasting her marriage with the abusive relationships of her coworkers. Overwhelmed by guilt and a sudden illness, she flees to a church to pray but cannot find peace.

## Themes in this chapter

### Work and Vocation

Evangeline's promotion and her detailed plans for improving her department illustrate her professional ambition and competence.

### Gender Roles and Domesticity

Evangeline contrasts her respectful marriage with the abusive relationships of her coworkers, highlighting societal expectations of marriage.

### Family and Parenting

The family celebrates together, and Evangeline's thoughts center on providing for her children and appreciating Lester's fatherly devotion.

## Character check-ins

### Evangeline Knapp

Promoted to head of department; reflects on her marriage and her husband's character; becomes ill and seeks solitude in a church.

### Lester Knapp

Celebrates Evangeline's promotion; remembered as a devoted father and husband; his paralysis and patience are highlighted.

### Helen Knapp

Participates in the family celebration; feels immense happiness hearing her parents talk together.

### Henry Knapp

Sent to buy ice cream for the celebration; joins in family planning.

### Jerome Willing

Orders Evangeline to go home when she appears ill at the store.

### Miss Flynn

Her retirement due to a family tragedy creates the vacancy that Evangeline fills.

## Key lines

> It was abominable to be poor! It brought out the worst in everyone. When you were distracted with worry about money, you simply weren’t yourself.

Poverty is terrible because it makes people act in ways they normally wouldn't, and financial worry changes a person's behavior.

_Evangeline reflects on how poverty has affected her own behavior and mood._

> She had been so unhappy about their hideous poverty. That was all. It was abominable to be poor!

Her unhappiness stemmed entirely from their dire financial situation; being poor is awful.

_Evangeline justifies her past coldness toward Lester as a result of their poverty._

> No woman could have better reason than she to trust the delicacy, the warm loving-heartedness, the self-control, the innate decency of a man.

Evangeline realizes that her husband Lester is exceptionally kind and trustworthy, unlike the men her coworkers describe.

_Evangeline contrasts Lester with the abusive husbands of her coworkers._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_homemaker_se/chapters/part-iv-xx
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_homemaker_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_homemaker_se/chapters