Isolation is a fascinating theme in many contemporary novels. Anne Tyler's books depict one of the most translucent forms of isolation.
Isolation, both physical and emotional, plays a central role in the Tull family. Pearl's distrust of outsiders and her fear of the dissolution of family bonds lead her to restrict her children's interaction with outsiders. However, this doesn't prevent her children from developing outside bonds, arguably stronger than familial ones. In fact, it is this suffocating and overwhelming shadow of the home that inspires the children to seek outside connections that can harvest their need for emotional bonding. Ezra perhaps demonstrates this most strongly. When Ezra goes off to the camp as a soldier, he asks Jenny to take care of Mrs. Scarlatti and Josiah, but never mentions his mother. This indicates that he adopts these individuals as his family, above his biological mother. He identifies with the vulnerability and the lonely personalities of these individuals. Perhaps Ezra sees his mother in Mrs. Scarlatti, both of whom had suffered from the irresponsibility of men in their lives. He treats Mrs. Scarlatti as his secondary mother, whose pain he can nourish and nurture more easily than that of his biological mother. Perhaps it is his failure yet intense need to communicate with Pearl that leads him to seek connection with another character similar to his mother.
Ezra's disappointment in achieving a happy family during childhood brings him to search for another home. When Ezra goes to camp as a soldier, he writes a letter to his mother and Jenny, in which he suggests what he associates with a home: “I think a lot about Scarlatti's Restaurant and how nice the lettuce smelled when I tore it into the bowl, he wrote - his only mention of homesickness, if that was what it was. Pearl gave a jealous sniff.” Ezra indicates that the restaurant serves as an inspiring home for him, which allows him to nurture his need to nourish. Ezra calls his restaurant The Homesick Restaurant, and appropriately uses it to foster his desire to bring his family together and resolve his own homesickness. However, Ezra calls Pearl “over-emotional” and his distance from Cody and Jenny result in a number of failed dinners, consistently depriving him his need to nurture. It is to note that Ezra does not mention any other moments of homesickness involving Pearl, Jenny or Cody.
Jenny also demonstrates a strong need to seek emotional bonding from someone outside her family. Josiah is an unfortunate outcast in his school and is compensated at home by his mother. This is contrasted by Jenny, who is deliberately kept as an outcast by Pearl to enforce familial bonds and support. However, in Jenny's point of view, she fails to provide that bonding at home and longs to find it in someone outside her immediate family. Jenny associates her own home as a dark and cold prison-like structure, which is contrasted with her idealized view of Josiah's home as a sanctuary in a fairy tale. Jenny describes her childhood house as suffocating and dark, as if ignorant of the dangers encircling it and unable to shed light on them. The cramped rooms are reminiscent of her unpleasant past closing in on her when she enters the house. The behaviours of her mother overtake her and she mimics the same annoyed and aggressive behaviour towards her daughter that Pearl exhibited to her in her childhood. Her entire life she longs to escape this past and keep from repeating her mother's behaviour.
In one scene in the novel, Ezra and Pearl are cleaning the farm house and find a dead bird inside. The dead bird represents the suffocating and imprisoning nature of the house. This image implies that cleansing must be done on the part of Pearl to liven the image of the home and reawaken familial bonds. Metaphorically, the farm is continually broken into, yet Ezra and Pearl continually attempt to cleanse it and bring it back together. Similarly, Ezra hosts family dinners for this purpose, and Pearl has discouraged outside reliance to strengthen the family's dependability on itself. Jenny is never seen coming to the farm; in fact, she is constantly busy and is shown to escape the home. Cody, who longs for appreciation and a family on the farm, neglects it. All attempts to bring the family together seem to fail, until the family reunites with Beck. When Beck returns, Cody is finally reconciled, Beck's absence is resolved and the family is at last able to complete a family dinner.
