Quite often while reading Anne Tyler's fiction, the reader is introduced to characters involved in tremulous relationships within the home. Many of the domestic interactions appear to be ridden with tumultuous and agitated feelings that fall along the brink of disaster. Once this occurs, the characters find escape from their situations in pursuit of a better personal life. One such character is Samuel Grinstead who appears in Ladder of Years.

Another example of a character who escapes a distressful marital situation is Ali Ardavi in "Your Place is Empty." In this story, Ali finds himself married to a termagant wife who is constantly nagging him to get a job. Annoyed by the stress placed on him by his wife, Ali flees to Shiriaz, in another area of Iran. It is there that he lives out his remaining days happy and free of his wife before dying of a brain hemorrhage. "Four years ago he had died of a brain hemorrhage, slumping over at a dinner table, where he'd gone to be free of his wife" (Empty 955). Ali, like many of Anne Tyler's characters, was unhappy in his marriage and thus finds an escape, which allows him to obtain a better personal life.

Similarly in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Beck Tull reaches a point in his life where he decides that he no longer is happy and thus begins searching for an escape. Beck had married young and began raising his family almost immediately. He felt this thrust into adulthood had robbed him of opportunities in his life. "Maybe if I hadn't settled down, life would have been different, maybe even better" (Homesick 33). Buck therefore escapes his wife, Pearl, and his family to pursue his dream of being a prosperous traveling salesman. He flees to another town to start over and does indeed become successful. However, a void is still present in his life, and when he returns home, he finds that Pearl has begun anew as well. She has remarried and has found new happiness without Buck. Assuming that his happiness would be associated with money, Buck abandons his wife and children to chase that dream, but upon returning he finds that life has moved on without him. His wife had too found an escape from her situation and had discovered a better life that did not include Buck.

Within the same story is yet another example of this particular kind of escape for the pursuit of a better personal life. Hassan's mother, Mrs. Ardaui, is constantly looking to break away from one family member to another in an attempt to find some sort of happiness where she resides. Following conflicts with her other son, Babak, and his wife, Mrs. Ardaui first leaves Iran to join her son, Hassan. "I could tell that living with them wasn't going to work," Mrs. Ardaui states, "she just didn't seem to follow the directions I would give her in raising their children"(Empty 954). Once she takes up residence with Hassan, however, she immediately makes plans to return to Iran to live with her sisters and Babak. The new world in America and the traditional ways of Mrs. Ardaui conflicted too much for her to live there. She found it very difficult to step aside and be an observer as her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, raised her family. Traditionally, the grandparents play a dominant role in the upbringing of the children, but that is in Iran not America as Mrs. Ardaui would soon find out. While she thought her happiness would be in the land of the free away from Babak and her other family, the escape would just prove to come full circle until it resulted in her escaping back to the place from which she first fled. When Mrs.Ardaui found herself unhappy in her living arrangements, she was determined to escape and seek solace in a better place to ensure her own contentment.

as usual, Delia turned her attention to the grocery bags.

In "Teenage Wasteland" Donny, as seen previously, seeks escape from his restrictive parents, but it can also be mentioned that he searches for a life without his tutor, Cal, as well. Cal, along with the other kids who are around Cal's home, encourages Donny to neglect his responsibilities at school and home. Donny finds himself torn between his family and the tutor. He also finds it difficult to choose the right path from the options they present to him. Donny finally chooses to break away from both influences for his own personal survival and happiness. "There was something exhausted and defeated about him. It all ha

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Approximate Word count = 2800
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)