The Homemaker · Chapter
XXI explained
Lester Knapp, confined to a wheelchair, grapples with the societal impossibility of a man taking on the domestic role of homemaker.
What happens
Lester Knapp, confined to a wheelchair, grapples with the societal impossibility of a man taking on the domestic role of homemaker. He reflects on his children—Henry, Helen, and Stephen—and the shame they would face from a tradition that values material success above all. He confronts his own cowardice in the face of public scorn, realizing he cannot withstand the judgment of figures like Harvey Bronson or the Ladies' Guild. The chapter opens with Lester's daily struggle to choose a mental companion from poets like Rossetti, Hardy, Shelley, or Browning, and closes with Stephen's protective insistence on lacing his shoes.
Themes in this chapter
Gender Roles and Domesticity
Lester confronts the impossibility of a man performing 'women's work' in the home, facing societal scorn and the threat of emasculation.
Work and Vocation
The chapter contrasts material production as society's definition of meaningful work with the undervalued labor of parenting and homemaking.
Judgment and Appearance vs. Reality
Lester fears the judgmental 'oh' of society, which would warp his children's lives and reduce his worth in their eyes despite his genuine care.
Characters to notice
- Lester Knapp
Contemplates the impossibility of being a homemaker, feels contempt for himself, and struggles with his physical limitations and societal tradition.
- Stephen Knapp
Shows protective devotion by insisting on lacing Lester's shoes; described as purposeful, energetic, and loving.
- Henry Knapp
Imagined as normal, sound, growing like a vigorous young sapling; would be ashamed of a father who stays home.
- Helen Knapp
Imagined as sensitive and defenseless, cringing before the societal 'oh' if her father were a homemaker.
- Evangeline Knapp
Mentioned as the breadwinner who sells goods; her trade-journals reflect the commercial ideology Lester despises.
- Harvey Bronson
Imagined as a figure whose sneer would torment Lester if he were found making a bed.
Key passages
“He knew that from the beginning of time everything had been arranged to make that impossible. Every unit in the whole of society would join in making it impossible, from the Ladies’ Guild to the children in the public schools.”
Lester realizes that society is universally structured to prevent a man from being a homemaker, with everyone from local clubs to schoolchildren enforcing the norm.
Highlights the systemic social pressure against gender role reversal.
“It was an exclamation that dated from the cave-age, but it still had power to warp the children’s lives as much as—yes, almost as much as leaving them to a Mrs. Anderson.”
The simple word 'oh' carries ancient, irrational power to damage his children's lives nearly as badly as neglect.
Emphasizes the destructive force of social stigma.
“He knew now what it decreed: that men are in the world to get possessions, to create material things, to sell them, to buy them, to transport them, above all to stimulate to fever-heat the desire for them in all human beings.”
Lester understands that society's true commandment is that men must obsessively pursue material wealth and consumption.
Reveals the core of the commercial tradition he rebels against.
“Would he stand back and let the opinion of the Ladies’ Guild. … Yes, he would. That was the kind of miserable cur he was.”
Lester admits to himself that he would indeed yield to public opinion and abandon what he knows is best for his children.
Shows his self-loathing and recognition of his own cowardice.
