Macon Leary grows up in a family where he is sheltered from the ways of the world. They live their lives through patterns and systems that they cannot escape. Macon reveals this lifestyle through his travel guide books, "The Accidental Tourist". However, in the novel, "The Accidental Tourist" , Macon starts to experience the outside world and slowly starts to leave behind the Leary way of life. It is in the contents of Macon's travel guides that we best witness his psychological development as a character.
             Macon's tour guides, "The Accidental Tourist" are extended metaphor's for Macon's shifting perceptions of himself and the world around him. In the early additions of the tour guides, Macon reveals his dislike for travel, which in his case, is linked to his inability to accept change in his life. Macon grew up with a mother who was always changing, nothing was ever familiar in his life. Macon along with his siblings, finally settled into their own life and, out of fear of change, developed a comfortable lifestyle with systems and methods and no uncertainties. Fear of the unknown causes the Leary family to avoid venturing out into the world. They greatly fear travel, and will avoid it at all costs. Avoiding travel, however, is not an option for Macon. As the author of pocket sized guidebooks for people who are forced to travel on business, Macon is forced to travel. "As much as he hated travel, he loved the writing" [p12]. Macon enjoys writing because he is able to take the countries he has been to and organize them into a system that he has created and that he can control. Macon hates travel because it does not have the comfort and systems of home. He does not enjoy leaving the life he has created, to go to a new country and feel disorganized and experience foreign things. When traveling, Macon avoids foreign ideas and attempts to keep everything as familiar as possible. ...