their salesman-father is merely on a trip. Pearl takes pride in her strategy, thinking, "They never asked about him. Didn't that show how little importance a father has? ... Apparently, she had carried this off—made the transition so smoothly that not a single person guessed. It was the greatest triumph of her life." However, the novel illustrates the harm caused by not addressing her children's true emotions. While single-parent families are common today, they were quite rare in suburban America during the 1940s and 1950s when the Tull children were growing up.

Pearl's aloofness profoundly affects her eldest son, Cody: "What he wouldn't give to have a mother who acted like other mothers! He longed to see her gossiping with a gang of women in the kitchen ... He wished he had some outside connection, something beyond this suffocating house." Despite growing up in such an isolated environment, Jenny and Ezra become responsible and caring adults. Ezra, in particular, shows genuine affection for his neighbors and business associates, unlike his older brother who often seeks personal gain.

Growth and Development
To what degree do the Tull children come to terms with their troubled upbringing? How much do they rise above it? Tyler delves into these complex questions in her novel without offering definitive answers. Jenny, over time, recognizes that she has inherited both positive and negative traits from her mother, such as orderliness, intelligence, and intensity, along with tendencies toward child abuse during stressful times. Gradually, she consciously adopts a more relaxed and humorous demeanor, becoming generally happier but also losing some of her passion for her immediate family.

Ezra, in contrast, retains a childlike demeanor well into his middle age. He remains unmarried, childless, and continues to live with his mother, never having experienced true sexual passion. His courtship of his fiancée, Ruth, is almost platonic until Cody takes her away, leaving Ezra to sense a void in his life. The phrase "Let it be" encapsulates his approach to life. He perceives himself as being "ruled by a dreamy mood of acceptance that was partly the source of all his happiness and partly his undoing." As Mary Ellis Gibson notes in the Southern Literary Journal, "Ezra is the most thorough fatalist in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant." Despite this, he acquires some coping mechanisms. Mrs. Scarlatti, a woman who is more traditionally maternal than Pearl, comes to view Ezra as a surrogate son. Ezra also forms strong, reciprocal bonds with several non-family members, including his nephew Luke and his unconventional friend Josiah Payson. Perhaps most significantly, he channels much of his energy and affection into creating a warm, inviting atmosphere in his restaurant, even if it is not always a financial success.

Meanwhile, Cody, the most assertive of the Tull children, maintains his competitive nature into adulthood. He steals his brother's girlfriend, works tirelessly to achieve financial success, and maneuvers to secure the maternal affection that has always been elusive (Pearl feels affection for him but struggles to express it). Despite his efforts, Cody finds little happiness, remaining plagued by guilt, anger, and confusion about his motivations. It is not until the novel's conclusion, when he confronts the father who abandoned him over thirty years ago, that Cody experiences a form of epiphany, gaining some understanding of his past actions and reactions.

Even Pearl, perhaps the family member least expected to change, undergoes some transformation. She redeems herself to some extent by becoming a much better grandparent than she was a mother, allowing her adult children to make their own choices and mistakes. While she may not approve of Jenny's three unsatisfactory marriages, she refrains from interfering as she once did. Toward the end of her life, she reflects calmly on her past and her three children, no longer consumed by her former rage. Although she continues to believe that "something was wrong with all of her children" and "wondered if her children blamed her for something," Pearl lacks the desire to pursue the matter further and passes away quietly.