Why We Love In The Accidental Tourist
Life just is. You have to flow with it.
Give yourself to the moment. Let it happen."
-Jerry Brown
If an individual allows changes to occur in one’s life, then love can be the wonderful result of that acceptance. The theme of reasons why we love and how we love different people is demonstrated throughout the book The Accidental Tourist, written by Anne Tyler. There are two main characters that undergo and accept the changes in their lives, and one character that stays static throughout the book, helping one of the characters to change. Macon Leary is first grounded by loneliness and comfort, then slowly opens himself up to what appears to be a whole new world for him. Then, there is Sarah Leary, who controls some of the changes in her …show more content…
Sarah leaves Macon, which is the beginning stage of Macon’s renovated life, but one that does not start off happily: “He didn’t eat real meals anymore…His hair, which Sarah used to cut for him, jutted over his forehead like a shelf. Ande something had caused his lower lids to droop. He used to have narrow gray slits of eyes; now they were wide and startled…” (14). Macon is not at all used to living alone. He wants to control everything and likes nothing to be left to chance—Sarah’s departure is not something he can control and he does not deal with it well. Macon begins to think that he cannot live without his wife, but soon realizes a few things that really make him think about the …show more content…
Above all, Macon’s desire to control his own life in such a regimented way as packing for trips with a great notion of order is probably due to the fact that he does not trust other people. He feels that he cannot rely on others and instead can only trust himself. However, this all changes with the help of Muriel, who proves to be one of the most beneficial people to come into Macon’s life. Sarah learns the hard way that you cannot always go back to people and places in your life and try and fix things that are not worth fixing, or not capable of being salvaged. In this case, it was she and Macon’s marriage. Sometimes it is better to let go of the past and move on to the future. The main theme of this book is love, and it is substantiated by Macon’s capability to lose sight of his fear and love someone completely different from himself and all that he has known. All of this happened because of one individual’s acceptance of change and the flow of
Give yourself to the moment. Let it happen."
-Jerry Brown
If an individual allows changes to occur in one’s life, then love can be the wonderful result of that acceptance. The theme of reasons why we love and how we love different people is demonstrated throughout the book The Accidental Tourist, written by Anne Tyler. There are two main characters that undergo and accept the changes in their lives, and one character that stays static throughout the book, helping one of the characters to change. Macon Leary is first grounded by loneliness and comfort, then slowly opens himself up to what appears to be a whole new world for him. Then, there is Sarah Leary, who controls some of the changes in her …show more content…
Sarah leaves Macon, which is the beginning stage of Macon’s renovated life, but one that does not start off happily: “He didn’t eat real meals anymore…His hair, which Sarah used to cut for him, jutted over his forehead like a shelf. Ande something had caused his lower lids to droop. He used to have narrow gray slits of eyes; now they were wide and startled…” (14). Macon is not at all used to living alone. He wants to control everything and likes nothing to be left to chance—Sarah’s departure is not something he can control and he does not deal with it well. Macon begins to think that he cannot live without his wife, but soon realizes a few things that really make him think about the …show more content…
Above all, Macon’s desire to control his own life in such a regimented way as packing for trips with a great notion of order is probably due to the fact that he does not trust other people. He feels that he cannot rely on others and instead can only trust himself. However, this all changes with the help of Muriel, who proves to be one of the most beneficial people to come into Macon’s life. Sarah learns the hard way that you cannot always go back to people and places in your life and try and fix things that are not worth fixing, or not capable of being salvaged. In this case, it was she and Macon’s marriage. Sometimes it is better to let go of the past and move on to the future. The main theme of this book is love, and it is substantiated by Macon’s capability to lose sight of his fear and love someone completely different from himself and all that he has known. All of this happened because of one individual’s acceptance of change and the flow of