Suffering and Coping in the Novels of Anne Tyler

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by The University of Mississippi SUFFERING AND COPING IN THE NOVELS OF ANNE TYLER By Camden Hastings A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Oxford May 2014 Approved By ______________________________________ Advisor: Dr. Kathryn McKee ______________________________________ Reader: Dr. Stephanie Miller ______________________________________ Reader: Dr. Deborah Barker © 2014 Camden Hastings ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii DEDICATION For my mother, who has supported me from the very beginning in all of my endeavors, both academic and otherwise, and who is my hero. For my younger sister, Tinsley, who has encouraged me so often when I needed it the most and who has been a source of many wonderful memories and laughs over the years. For my uncle, A.G. Harmon, who has provided me support, guidance, and inspiration in this and all other parts of my life. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank Dr. Kathryn McKee for her endless encouragement, time taken to answer my multitude of questions, and suggestions that challenged my thinking and guided my work to a successful completion. I am grateful to you for making the thesis-writing process most enjoyable and for all you have contributed to my past four years at Ole Miss. I would also like to thank the other members of my thesis committee, Dr. Stephanie Miller and Dr. Deborah Barker, for reading my rather lengthy paper and providing insight and inspiring deeper thought into matters I enjoyed discussing at my defense. This thesis would not have come into existence without an idea from my uncle, who knows me well enough to predict how much I would enjoy reading Tyler’s works. I took great pleasure in the entire exploration and writing process and appreciate the suggestion to get to know Tyler even better. My mother, sister, and grandparents provided me with constant support and guidance over the two-year span of reading and writing and allowed me to talk continuously about my project. Their thoughts often allowed me to incorporate new ideas into my project. Finally, I am grateful for the constant support of my friends, whose encouragement over the past four years has meant more to me than they will ever know. iv ABSTRACT CAMDEN STORY HASTINGS: Suffering and Coping in the Novels of Anne Tyler (Under the direction of Dr. Kathryn McKee) Through an exploration of the causes of the characters’ suffering and their mechanisms for coping, this thesis shows that by developing the perseverance necessary to navigate ordinary, everyday obstacles, Tyler’s characters cope with extraordinary circumstances causing them pain. They also realize that victories in the little things lead to discoveries about themselves and the sources of their distress. The six novels discussed here include The Accidental Tourist, Saint Maybe, The Beginner’s Goodbye, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Ladder of Years, and Breathing Lessons. Nine major characters from these six novels are explored and, while various causes lead to their individual suffering, these origins can be divided into three main categories: grief as the result of freak accidents, motherhood, and insecurities arising from unusual circumstances. Though their coping mechanisms take a variety of forms, this thesis explores the validity of several different responses and also emphasizes everyday endurance as the ultimate victory in these characters’ lives. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter I: Family, Fate, and Freak Accidents…………………………………………….8 1.1: Macon Leary………………………………………………………………….8 1.2: Ian Bedloe…………………………………………………………………...23 1.3: Aaron Woolcott………………………………………………………...........36 Chapter II: Motherhood and Identity…………………………………………………….50 2.1: Pearl Tull…………………………………………………………………….50 2.2: Maggie Moran……………………………………………………………….65 2.3: Delia Grinstead……………………………………………………………...78 Chapter III: Insecurities from Unusual Circumstances………..........................................92 3.1: Cody Tull……………………………………………………………………92 3.2: Jenny Tull.………………………………...………………………….........102 3.3: Muriel Pritchett…………………………………………………………….116 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...128 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...132 vi Introduction The wide range of causes for her characters’ suffering allows Anne Tyler to comment upon the variety of trials that they experience, as well as to discuss multiple mechanisms for conquering them. Additionally, what critics have characterized as her formulaic plots, settings, and character types, actually complement the ordinariness of everyday life that she portrays in her novels and prove not to be formulaic at all. Tyler creates her own world, her own Baltimore, with its distinct features, teeming with the eccentric characters, each seeking to overcome his or her own challenges. The appeal of Tyler’s novels comes in that her characters do not simply suffer through an isolated trial and then cope with it on their way to a full recovery. Instead, they suffer every day, in a variety of ordinary and mundane ways, such as deciding one day after several years, to train a dog or backing out of the car repair shop and rear-ending a delivery truck. While potentially making steps towards progress, they often face the possibility of regression. The characters are not necessarily healed; rather, they make discoveries vital to their growth as individuals which allow them to function in the world. Through an exploration of the causes of the characters’ suffering and their mechanisms for coping, this thesis will show that by developing the perseverance necessary to navigate ordinary, everyday obstacles, Tyler’s characters cope with extraordinary circumstances that cause them pain and also realize that victories in the little things lead to discoveries about themselves and the origins of their pain. For each of these characters, as well as most of the others whose lives Tyler explores, the family becomes the root of suffering as they seek to identify themselves as 1 individuals unique from or to solidify their position within their families. Edward Hoagland notes that “in every book, the reader is immersed in the frustrating alarums of a family- [including] the Pikes, the Pecks, the Tulls, the Learys.” These frustrations, however, shape the characters into the people they become and determine the methods they rely upon in interactions with the world. Tyler’s examination of the family, through its structure, relationships of its members, and the role it plays in each member’s life emphasizes the importance of this entity, no matter how its members choose to view it. According to Robert McPhillips, Tyler characterizes the family as the “only dependable unit against which to gauge one’s identity” (151). While some of Tyler’s characters view family as a unit to retreat to during hard times in life, running into its open arms as a safe haven, others hope to gain independence from its structure and confines. Either way, the family plays a central role in the characters’ lives, from influencing how they make decisions to the people they consider first when they need reassurance. However, even with the members who consider this unit as something from which to flee, many find that they value its role in their lives more than once realized. For example, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, all three of the Tull children seek to escape the limitations placed upon them within their mother’s household; each desires to identify himself distinctly from the Tull name to experience the world on his own. Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times writes that “Tyler uses the family as a symbol for ‘those two imperatives in American life: the need for community, definition, and safety, and the desire for flight, adventure, and independence’” (Croft 80). Since each of the siblings takes similar measures to carry out this desire, they are actually more alike than they realize. Additionally, that each seeks to 2 flee the unity that his or her mother so desperately pushes on them becomes negated in the last scene; the three siblings acknowledge that they are all they have in the world and must cling to their family’s foundation in order to survive the uncertainties and detours of life. Larry McMurtry notes that through the development of the family, Tyler demonstrates “the mingling of misery and contentment in the daily lives of her families, reminding us how alike- and yet distinct- happy and unhappy families can be” (135). Because Tyler writes about the nitty gritty details in the everyday lives of her characters, the ups and downs they experience become more relatable, reminding the reader that very little of what these characters encounter is beyond the realm of the average person’s understanding. Tyler’s work revolves around the creation of normal, everyday characters with whom a wide range of readers can find a particular connection. These characters, according to Hoagland, are “clinging to a low rung of the middle class, they are householders because they have inherited a decaying home, not because they’re richer than renters, and they remain bemused or bewildered by the fortuitous quality or most major ‘decisions’ in their own or other’s lives.” These traits may characterize them as somewhat hopeless, but at the same time, their ordinariness and ability to be so in-tune with the workings of the world become quite evident. Wallace Stegner describes the characters as “a Dickensian gallery of oddballs, innocents, obsessives, erratic, incompetents, and plain Joes and Janes, [who] all see the world a little skewed, but their author… presents them… [so that] they come off the page as exhilaratingly human. First they surprise us, then we recognize them, then we acknowledge how much they tell us about ourselves” (148). 3 Despite the often extreme circumstances they face, from a freak murder at a Burger Bonanza to a single moment predicting a drastically different future, the characters must learn how to cope with daily obstacles as they move towards progress.

Load more