“The Accidental Tourist” by Anne Tyler (post 2): Macon’s methodical, emotionally distant behavior stops when he switches to an alternate personality

The first 201 pages of this 342-page novel are a running joke about Macon Leary’s personality. He earns his living by writing travel guidebooks that help businessmen who visit foreign countries feel like they haven’t left home. When he is at home, he is extremely set in his ways and methodical. His personal relationships are limited and constrained. His wife has just left him, because she can no longer tolerate his personality, which has been the same for the many years that she has known him.

“Oh, above all else he was an orderly man. He was happiest with a regular scheme of things. He tended to eat the same meals over and over and to wear the same clothes; to drop off his cleaning on a certain set day and to pay his bills on another. The teller who helped him on his first trip to a bank was the teller he went to forever after, even if she proved not to be efficient, even if the next teller’s line was shorter. There was no room in his life for anyone as unpredictable as Muriel” (1, p. 201).

Muriel, the other main character, is the young, divorced woman who is training Macon’s dog, and is struggling to support herself and her son.

Surprisingly, “In the foreign country that was Singleton Street [where Muriel lived] he was an entirely different person. This person had never been suspected of narrowness, never been accused of chilliness; in fact, was mocked for his soft heart. And was anything but orderly” (1, p. 202-203).

Comment

Persons with multiple personality are often called “multiples,” as distinguished from persons who have only one personality, who are called “singletons.” Was Anne Tyler implying that Macon is a multiple and Muriel is a singleton, since she lives on Singleton Street?

In any case, what is described above is Macon’s switch to an alternate personality. It illustrates this principle: the particular personality that is able to come out and take control depends upon which personality best fits the circumstances.

Macon’s previous obsession with maintaining a methodical and emotionally distant lifestyle was a particular personality’s effort to maintain circumstances conducive to its remaining in control. But Muriel changed the circumstances, and so an alternate personality, who had been stuck inside, but was better suited to the new circumstances, came out and took over.

1. Anne Tyler. The Accidental Tourist [1985]. New York, Berkley Books, 1986.