57 pages • 1 hour read
Fiona DavisThe Address
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: America's Gilded Age
The Gilded Age lasted from the late 1870s to the early 1900s, and Mark Twain, coined the moniker in The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which he coauthored with Charles Dudley Warner. That work satirizes the greed and corruption that characterized America’s post-Civil War era, shining a light on the period’s superficiality. It is a “gilded” age as opposed to a “golden” one, its apparent beauty shallow rather than deep. Twain describes the age as “glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath” because life appeared beautiful and opulent for the wealthy, while the lower classes suffered horribly under inhumane working and living conditions (Mintz, S. and S. McNeil. “Overview of the Gilded Age.” Digital History). This is the age of the robber barons, unscrupulous oil tycoons, and newspaper owners, who thought only of their profits and never of their employees’ welfare or the public good.
Dakota resident, Kenneth Worley, reflects this attitude to Bailey when he says, “The era was all about money and the illusion of success, as opposed to offering anything truly valuable” (224). America offers the impression of equality and beauty, of dreams within reach, but, as Sara Smythe points out to Theodore Camden, “in New York, you are either on the list or not” (109). Despite Theodore’s idealism, Sara understands that some people have greater opportunities than others. However, Sara and Theodore do enjoy poking fun at “the madness of the elite” with their ostentatious homes and lavish possessions (115), which draw attention to the greed of the wealthy.
However flashy the period, it has greater significance in that it was instrumental in the development of the American psyche: “It is easy to caricature the Gilded Age as an era of corruption, conspicuous consumption, and unfettered capitalism. But it is more useful to think of this as modern America's formative period when an agrarian society of small producers was transformed into an urban society dominated by industrial corporations” (“Overview of the Gilded Age”). It was an “age of enjoyment and money and indulgence,” not unlike the 1980s (284).
Historical Context: The Decade of Decadence
When Dakota resident Kenneth Worley describes New York in the 1800s, he adds, “Reminds me of New York City these days, to be honest with you” (224). This is because the 1980s, characterized as a decade of decadence and excess, had a lot in common with the 1880s. Like the 1880s, the 1980s were marked by extremes and excess, and the decade had a significant impact on the way the USA was to develop into the 21st century.
The USA experienced financial crises in the 1980s, including a recession caused by rising interest rates, high mortgage rates, and problematic policies meant to control inflation. The Reagan administration’s financial practices and policy choices “helped increase both poverty and inequality” and widened income existing income inequities (Plotnick, RD. “Changes in Poverty, Income Inequality, and the Standard of Living in The United States During the Reagan Years.” International Journal of Health Services, vol. 23, no. 2, 1993, pp. 347-58). At this time, the rich got richer while the poor got poorer, not unlike what happened because of the rise in industrialism that preceded and continued throughout the Gilded Age.
In the 1980s, the rise of “yuppies” (an elaboration of the acronym young, urban professionals) with their success, materialism, and ostentatious bravado, contributed to the decade’s association with decadence, at least before the market crash of 1987. Although Melinda Camden is not a yuppie—she doesn’t work and was born to the upper class—her attitudes are like theirs. The narrative introduces her wearing a “jumpsuit with enormous shoulder pads,” and she appears to exist within “a bubble that protected her from the humidity that plagued the common man” (30). She longs for her gorgeously traditional Dakota apartment to look like a “beachfront Roman villa” or somewhere in “Malibu” (59), with gilt chairs, leopard print fabrics, Lucite, and faux marble. Melinda frequently misuses drugs and alcohol, living a lavish and self-indulgent lifestyle, though she has not yet received her trust fund money.
Though Sara Smythe and Bailey Camden live a century apart, the eras in which they live bear many similarities, especially regarding the financial disparity between the upper and lower classes and the dearth of opportunities for those who find themselves near the bottom of the social and economic ladder.
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