Themes In Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant

Family Issues Anne Tyler is an amazing author. In her book, Dinner At the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler describes each character very descriptively. Child abuse and family issues were the two themes in this book. Family issues are a very common thing for everyone, but every family handle these issues differently. As for the Tull family in this novel, it is about a single mother who spend her adult life raising her three children. The Tull family have plenty of family issues in this novel and it is a great life-learning experience while reading the novel. The beginning of the novel it starts off as pearl, the single mother and Ezra, Pearls favorite child who is the heart-warming middle child, they both are talking about Pearl’s early life …show more content…
When he finds Ezra, Luke realizes how much of a father figure Ezra is and starts to imagine what it would be like if Ezra were really his father. “If Ezra were really his father then Luke could live in Baltimore… surrounded by relatives, a loving, funny aunt Jenny. Those rafts of cousins.” (Tyler 233) Luke really wanted to live in Baltimore with his family and he really wanted Ezra to be his father, which is a great thing, but then it causes Luke to give nothing but hatred against his real father. Later during the story Pearl dies, the whole family gather around and at her funeral and Cody was shocked when he saw his father had attended. Ezra and Jenny hardly recognized him. After the entire family – besides Pearl, gathered around the dinner table, the entire family connected fairly quickly. They let the past go and become a closer family with their father around. These family issues in this story is showing a heart-warming meaning about how important family is whether you’re an adult or a child. Anne Tyler is showing that every family has it’s own puzzle. The cause of the multiple family issues going on with the Tull family was only because they were missing a piece in a puzzle, they’re