The Accidental Tourist: A Study

The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler

The Accidental Tourist is one of Anne Tyler’s most acclaimed novels. Published in 1985, in the same year it was awarded by the NBCC or the National Book Critics Circle (a prestigious association of almost seven hundred book reviewers in America), and in 1988 was made into a major film. The title of the novel is crucial, both thematically and metaphorically. In the novel, the accidental tourist is the name of the conservative travel guide that is written by Macon, the main protagonist. This guidebook is tailored towards reluctant travelling businessmen; it details how to avoid the ‘foreign’ and how to travel without feeling as though one has left home. Macon himself is a champion of this philosophy, as is revealed in his actions, attitudes and interior monologues. However his fear of the foreign does not limit itself to travel alone; he intentionally ostracizes himself and travels through life avoiding the foreign. The fact that the word ‘accidental’ features in both the title of Macon’s travel book and the novel itself is similarly equally as significant. The accidental is a major theme, and events occur in an accidental fashion, as I will expand

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

195); and manages to admit to Muriel “I lost my son” (P197). The novel is a narrative; in so much as it is a story involving characters, character’s speech and actions, and events. The Accidental Tourist is an example of one such less simplistic narrative. His family’s intolerance of Edwards’s behaviour leads in turn to the hiring of Muriel as dog trainer. “His brain buzzed with little worries. This is because the content of the narrative is portrayed through the form, flashbacks, the thought process and dreams.

As I mentioned in point two above, in simple narratives the narrative form order (the order events are narrated) and the narrative content order (the order events ‘actually’ occur) correspond; as a consequence the narrator experiences the events as they are narrated. It is only in the final chapter 20 everything dawns on him and he is spurned into action and has truly emerged:

“ He reflected that he had not taken steps very often in his life, come to think of it. It is primarily more useful to consider the elements of a simple narrative before examining the composition of a complex one. At the beginning of the novel, form and content order are mismatched. 16)

This is a clever ploy on part of the narrator. By chapter 11 he makes the most progress. As the form If these ran chronologically parallel to the narrated form of the novel the content would be rather unauthentic, and could hardly represent the human thought-process. Nevertheless, this is not her main ambition. 113)

Macon, greatly inspired by her bravery and determination, visualises this scenario in detail:

“Unexpectedly, he pictured Muriel after the Doberman had knocked her off the porch.

Approximate Word count = 3713
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.