is both age- and gender-related, while his wife displays certain traits presented stereotypically as female traits. She is more outwardly emotional, and he is more contained and deliberate in his actions, holding feelings back rather than expressing them except in terms of anger or mild aggression. Some of Norman's anger and aggression is related to age and to a certain anger about being so old--this is evident as he argues with the boys at the gas pump, and they in turn show churlish behavior in baiting him about his age and by laughing behind his back.
Norman exhibits certain traits related to his being a male, following a number of stereotypical ideas about how men should behave. It is evident that Norman is trying to live up to his maleness as age takes it away from him. He is always searching for a job in the newspaper, though it is clear he could never hold down a job. He sees the male as one who looks for a job, and he retains his maleness by doing so. His aggressive nature is also an assertion of his male prerogatives, and it becomes physical behavior when he seems to be challenging the boys at the gas pump to a fist fight. Ethel knows that this is the reason for much of her husband's behavior and says so, trying to tell him that he is the same man as always to her and that he does not have to have a job or do any of these other things to prove it.
Norman's manner is similar at all times, with the apparent anger and aggression exploding outward at the world around h
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