But we see a few people happy and confident; and we see a few people unhappy with the system in Helen's. I really don't think we need the "different time periods" to connect the two stories' universes...I mean. there are plenty of domestic novels about the beauties of being a young mom...and then there's Sylvia Plath or tons of later feminist writing...the two co-exist...at times even in the same person.

I'm really reading the two Johns and Rodneys as different responses to the same system. John's parents seem to enjoy their relationship as do most other people around him.

Again, I think our initial reading of different tone/mode may be closer than trying to say they're completely differnt universes or at different times...