Reading the given literary text which
is “The Accidental Tourist “was very enjoyable as it is far in my usual reading
genre. It was interesting to how authors can create such a detailed story
wherein what I experienced while reading this book transport me to different
worlds, eras, and dimensions. Reading makes you think about other people and
put yourself in their situations. I believe new genre opens tens of thousands
of new worlds for us to discover. A brief summary of the literary text,
starting with Macon Leary, a middle-aged travel guide writer but dislikes
travelling because of mishaps he always experiences. After their kid is
tragically killed, his wife, Sarah, they decided to break up. He
ends up shattered and turn his back to the world, bringing him back
to his family house. He strikes up a friendship with Muriel, a dog trainer with
her own small boy. When Sarah learns about this, she makes an attempt at
reconciliation, forcing Macon to make a choice.
Using
the biographical context, there is a close connection between the
author’s life and her novels because many of her major novels are also set in
the city of Baltimore where she settled and started writing full-time. After a
thorough research of her life, I have found out that the reason why almost all
of her novel has character of a man because he has 3 brothers, she stated from
an interview “I am very comfortable writing as a man, and I think that’s
because I had really good men in my life. They made me feel comfortable and I
thought, “OK, they’re not so different from me.” I believe that her childhood plays
a huge role in her writing. In addition to this using sociocultural
context her writing primarily deals with problems of modern American
life. Family relationships are portrayed as both comfortable and
confirming of one's innermost self, but also as suffocating in addition to
these more positive features. Macon's family, like his marriage to Sarah,
proves to be a place where he seeks comfort in the familiar because he is not
an adventurous person and always want something he already know of, but when
the initial comfort of the familiar is gone, all that is left is a sense of the
inescapable. "The Accidental Tourist" is set in the 1980s, a
time when the United States experienced record-breaking numbers of divorces,
that drew a big turmoil and attention from the media and social groups. Macon
is surrounded by the failures of his own marriage to Sarah, as well as his two
brothers, who are both divorced. This is an upsetting and distressing circumstances
that represents some of the social problems of the 1980s, when divorce rates
were at its peak on many people's minds. Furthermore, Baltimore has a long
history of violence, as well as significant disparities between rich and poor
urban communities. Class problems are not at the forefront of any direct
happening in "The Accidental Tourist," but there is a persistent
hatred for anything else than middle- and higher-class communities and
individuals. In my understanding, it was titled “The Accidental Tourist” not
only because of Macon and his travels but his overall self, his unplanned trips
and the accidents he experiences in his life. Along with this are the lives of
the characters that have experience the same thing, as well as the reflecting
on the accidental tours or happenings that lead to the unknown destination.
I think that we need to learn the literary text given to us for us to be
exposed to different kind of genres of literary text. It enables us students to
have different perspective and see what life is in the eyes of the character we
are reading. It helps us learn to be empathic as we are experiencing or puts us
into the shoes of the characters, which makes us relate to real life. It's
vital to increase understanding of, and interest in, current social and
cultural issues. Us students must be more socially and culturally conscious of
what the world requires in order to shape what the future holds. Having broader
worldview, will likely benefit as many people as are willing to put up the
effort to understand different cultures and languages.
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