Macon

life of a man named Macon, and different occurrences that completely transform him. From the start of the novel, the reader learns about Macon’s dark past and the subsequent negative and positive repercussions that resound throughout his life. Tyler then displays how these changes have impacted his life in an unpredictable yet entirely positive way. For instance, only a few years before the book begins, Macon’s son had been killed while he was very young. This disaster left Macon struggling to…

Ruth and Pilate worked together to trick Macon into having a baby with Ruth. Ruth reminisces on it later in the book by saying, “She [Pilate] gave me funny things to do. And some greenish-gray grassy-looking stuff to put in his food.” They also worked together to defy Macon again and save the baby when Macon attempted to get Ruth to abort it. Ruth and Pilate accomplished this when, “Ruth let Pilate lead her into the bedroom…

affect his relationships, his perspective, or his life in general? These are questions that are answered thoroughly in The Accidental Tourist, as they are relevant to the text thematically. In the novel, the focus is placed primarily on protagonist Macon Leary; special attention is given to his adjustment to the loss of his son and an impending divorce from his wife, Sarah. Through this focus on Macon’s changes in life, the themes of loss, the disillusionment of life, and the process of changing…

the character’s personality and change in mind. It also juxtaposes the two main characters, Macon Junior and Milkman, to give tension to the overall plot. The peacock first appears as a simile when Macon Junior sees his luxurious future fan out “before him like the tail-spread of a peacock”. The peacock simile connects Macon with the idea of acquiring money, which explains the greedy personality of Macon Junior. The peacock also signifies the change in Macon’s personality…

Morrison presents us the story of Macon Dead II encountering the sack of gold. Macons reaction to the gold was, “Life, safety, and luxury fanned out before him like the tail spread of a peacock, and as he stood there trying to distinguish each delicious color” (Morrison 170). Milkman also encountered the peacock…

An obvious similarity between Ruth and Pilate is their distaste for Macon Dead. Ruth has two main reasons for hating Macon. The first cause for her negative feelings is that throughout the book “[Ruth was] long deprived of sex, long dependent on self-manipulation...”(134). Her other motivation is simply that Macon always criticizes her. The first time we hear of Macon, he is…

imageries. The excerpt also reveals Macon Dead’s personality through the other characters and his role in the household. This type of narrative, where the characters are discovered mainly through the other characters, is consistent throughout the whole novel. Ruth's character, for example, was shown to be isolated from the black community and thought of as a wanna-be white women from the appearance of the others and their actions during Mr. Smith’s suicide leap. Macon is described indirectly…

For example, Macon was white and he was standing up and speaking for all the black and people of color out there (Mansbach, 2005). People listened because he had the privilege of being white, they saw him as a trustworthy source. Which leads to the power that the privilege…

foreshadow their emotional and physical state. Names indicate an inevitable mold that the characters fit into overtime. Macon I and his son, Macon II fit into to their last name, Dead. When Macon Dead I endures a physical death, which causes his son to endure an emotional death. Emotional death is when a person is numb to all emotions while they live a numb life. However, Macon Dead III or Milkman defies his probable future because he indulges in a quest to self-identity and discovers his…

friend. During junior high, Halley got to know someone named Macon Faulkner, who she started to adore and admire. Halley broke all her rules for him: lying to her parents about where or what she was doing, not realizing that she was changing herself in the process. As her parents kept advising her to stay away from Macon, she did not listen. She kept creeping closer and didn’t comprehend…