Content Warning: This section alludes to rape, as well as domestic violence and alcohol addiction.

From the moment in which a plane crash upends Francis’s orderly existence, the story critiques the conformity and artificiality of suburban life. The Weeds’ home is beautiful but generic, lacking any imperfections that would render it distinctive. Likewise, as Francis grows increasingly disenchanted with his life in Shady Hill, he reflects on how bland his neighbors truly are: “[M]any of them, also, were bores and fools, and he had made the mistake of listening to them all with equal attention” (42). Here, the problem of conformity is twofold: The apparent homogeneity of suburban life weakens Francis’s ability to perceive any differences that do exist, rendering existence all the more uniform.

The story’s critique of suburban life most strongly intersects with its examination of Francis and Julia’s marriage. This is no accident: The 1950s idealization of suburban life was inseparable from its promotion of the nuclear family as the norm to which everyone should aspire. Throughout the story, Francis’s wife, Julia, represents the conformity that Francis chafes against. She refuses to acknowledge the profundity of the plane crash, concerns herself primarily with social functions, and works hard to establish the family’s facade of happiness.