60 pages • 2 hours read
Chandler BakerThe Husbands: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Gold Pen
The gold pen wives receive when they purchase a home in Dynasty Ranch symbolizes the control they gain over their husbands when they consent to couples’ counseling with Cornelia. The use of a pen highlights the social inequity between men and women outside the community and within it. It is phallic, representative of the social power most often associated with men. The person with the pen is, quite literally, the person in control. Ironically, it represents the emasculation of Dynasty Ranch husbands as they are stripped of power, a quality associated with masculinity, and the empowerment of the wives.
One might also consider the symbol in light of the expression, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” which suggests that the written word—by which one conveys intellectual work—is more powerful than physical violence. A pen is a rather innocuous, everyday implement, though its gold color certainly reflects the value of social control. However, the pen also secretly nods to the way Cornelia establishes and maintains control, by using the brain—both her own intelligence and the science of neurology—rather than physical force or violence. The husbands in The Stepford Wives, for example, control their wives by murdering them and creating look-a-like robots; they use physical force to overpower the women. At Dynasty Ranch, however, the method used to control men is much more academic and cerebral. It relies on the wives’ intelligence and education rather than physical violence.
Social Media Posts
As a motif, the internet posts that sometimes follow the chapters emphasize The Persistence of Marriage Inequality as well as Society’s Gender-Based Double Standards, focusing on the ideas presented by the chapters themselves. One article, apparently celebrating the “creative problem-solving” skills that allow mothers to “make the most of their time” (16) focuses exclusively on how mothers keep up with professional and family responsibilities with no mention of what “creative” solutions fathers have found to not having enough time. This omission not only demonstrates the continued existence of an imbalance between the work mothers and fathers do, but it also highlights society’s heightened expectations of women, so much so that it focuses exclusively on how mothers manage their personal and professional demands.
When one male commenter suggests that “articles like these devalue the role of men at home” (16) and expresses disappointment over the editorial staff’s lack of objectivity, he proves this point. Female commenters take issue, in part, with what the article fails to acknowledge: that working mothers have little choice but to get creative—neglecting their sleep or doing dangerous things like expressing milk while driving—that they are not, in fact, thinking outside the box but, instead, suffering desperately from society’s untenable expectations. Rather than listening to and learning from the unanimity of these women, who all suggest that what the article omits—any references to fathers’ struggles with work-life balance—is precisely what demonstrates the social problems that create the problem, the male commenter laments a lack of appreciation for fathers. His response echoes Hayden’s beliefs, certainty, and defensiveness, indicating that society’s indoctrination of boys and girls into distinct roles is the root cause of The Gender-Based Double Standards that lead to social inequality.
Dynasty Ranch
One of Nora’s first impressions of Dynasty Ranch is that the neighborhood’s gleaming and picturesque beauty looks like “the American dream” (6). As she and Hayden first enter the development, she notes the “grand entrance […] with the name DYNASTY RANCH spelled out in slanting cursive […]. A fountain sprays a plume of water. It’s, yes, a bit ostentatious, but there are worse things, aren’t there?” (4). Thus, the neighborhood becomes associated with and symbolic of the American Dream, an ideal which suggests that anyone in America can start with nothing, or very little, and, through hard work and perseverance, can achieve financial and personal success because America is a meritocracy that rewards industry rather than privilege. Because Cornelia and the other wives clearly prefer to admit industrious, hard-working, and professionally successful mothers, this association resonates with Nora.
The concept of the American Dream is challenged, however, by the difficulty of achieving it without having access to some type of privilege. Many rags-to-riches stories feature protagonists—such as in The Great Gatsby—who already enjoy racial, gender, or financial privilege while other people who are just as diligent and industrious never can reach success. Exceptions prove the rule, which is a fallacious form of reasoning known as survivorship bias: The story of a person from a disadvantaged background achieving the American Dream is used as proof that anyone can do it, ignoring the majority of cases to the contrary. Similarly, in Dynasty Ranch, the wives hold all the power, limiting and controlling their husbands’ agency and opportunity in a similar way. Their education and wealth grant them privilege as does the support they give one another. Their shared guilt for the unethical tactics they use to maintain control over men, who do the daily work associated with parenthood, render their achievement of this dream illusory because it is founded on moral corruption rather than work ethic, partnership, and perseverance.
