Character development of Macon in The Accidental Tourist

Accidental Tourist: A Journey of Transformation

The Accidental Tourist follows the story of a man who must adjust to a new life after the death of his son and divorce from his wife. The story revolves around his journey to recover from these mishaps in his life and build a life that is fulfilling. The story centers on his relationships with his wife/ex-wife, siblings, and a new love and her sickly son. His experiences with each of these relationships forms the basis of his transformative journey. This essay will explore the thesis that Macon is transformed through his perceptions of order and chaos.

The central thesis of this essay hinges on the concept that the plot of Accidental Tourist is character driven, rather than plot driven. It is certain from the beginning of the story that the main character, Macon, will change in some manner from the beginning of the story to the end, but how the transformation will occur is not as obvious. The following will use material from the story to support the central thesis that the changes are a direct result of changes in Macon's concept of order and chaos.

In the beginning of the story, Macon has routine life. He likes order in everything that he does. After his son dies, it becomes apparent that Macon finds comfort in his routines, but his wife, Sarah, does not. She says, "You just go on your same old way like before. Your little routines and rituals, depressing habits, day after day. No comfort at all" (Tyler, p. 3). These differences led to the estrangement of him and his wife. He muses, "Maybe all these years, they'd been keeping each other on a reasonable track. Separated, demagnetized somehow, they wandered wildly off course" (Tyler, p. 9).

Although it is not directly stated, Macon despises the travel necessary to write his business travel guides. He does not like the lack of order in foreign travel. The narrator of the story gives the reader the following perspective.

"Seated in a stenographer's chair…he wrote a series of guidebooks for people forced to travel on business. Ridiculous, when you thought about it: Macon hated to travel. He careened through foreign territories on a desperate kind of blitz -- squinching his eyes shut and holding his breath…" (Tyler, p. 9).

However, Macon does like something about his work. He likes the ability to organize the disorganization of his experiences.

"As much as he hated the travel -- he loved the writing -- the virtuous delights of organizing a disorganized country, stripping away the inessential and the second-rate, classifying all that remained in neat, terse paragraphs" (Tyler, p. 10).

The theme of Macon's love or organization is a central theme of the novel. His life becomes chaotic through the loss of his son and his wife. Change occurs within in him, as his desperately tries to make order out of these events.

"Oh, he'd raged at her and hated her and entirely forgotten her, at different times. He'd had moments when he imagined he'd never cared for her to begin with; only went after her because everybody else had. But the fact was, she was his best friend. The two of them had been through things that no one else in the world knew of. She was embedded in his life. It was much too late to root her out" (Tyler, p. 122).

Macon is unable to make sense out of his life and to restore it to his once, order world of work and organization. Edward, his spirited Corgi soon replaces Sarah as a symbol of chaos in the life of Macon. Edward has a source of chaos throughout the novel in the form of another character with whom he has a relationship. Edward easily fills this need for something to organize. Macon desperately tries to asset "orderliness" on Edward through his failed training efforts. Muriel, steps in to fill the role of restoring order to Macon's chaotic world, first through getting Edward to listen.

"Edward looked uncomfortable; he gazed off toward the street and gave a sort of a cough. Then slowly, slowly, one forepaw crumpled. Then the other. He lowered himself by degrees until he was lying down" (Tyler, p. 169).