The Accidental Tourist (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Anne Tyler
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The 1980’s
- Setting: Baltimore, Maryland
- Principal Characters: Macon Leary, Sarah Leary, Ethan Leary, Edward, Muriel Pritchett, Rose Leary, Charles Leary, Porter Leary, Julian Edge
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Family or family life, Self-discovery, Traveling or travelers, Dogs, Love or romance, Authors or writers, Marriage, Alienation, Brothers and sisters, 1980’s, Divorce, Death or dying, Lifestyles, Loneliness, Life, philosophy of, Baltimore, Pets, Tourist trade
- Locales: Baltimore, MD
Form and Content
Anne Tyler’s The Accidental Tourist is a novel about pain, isolation, and the rebirth of the human spirit. Each character in Tyler’s novel has been broken by the world, especially Macon Leary. He is broken by the death of his son and the failure of his twenty-year marriage to Sarah. The main focus of Tyler’s novel is Macon’s journey toward discovering himself, as he learns that he can survive his loss of his son and marriage.
The novel opens with the Learys returning from an aborted summer vacation at the beach. The relationship between...
[The entire page is 2570 words long]
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