Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

At the end of the novel, it is revealed that Beck Tull left his family because he was a carefree traveling salesman who felt that he had rushed into marriage. More importantly, however, it is revealed that Beck felt burdened by the emotional responsibilities of running a family. He decides to leave soon after Pearl has almost died from an arrow wound which was accidentally inflicted by Cody. When Pearl nearly dies, Beck realizes that he cannot handle his emotional attachments to his family. Years later, when he sits outside the house and sees Cody confidently flip a newspaper into the air and catch it, Beck decides that his family is doing all right without him (Tyler 309). However, the truth of the

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hich Pearl's emotional repression is translated into Cody's cruelty. Because of Pearl's failure to communicate with him, Cody develops a strong sense of resentment against others. This resentment makes Cody do cruel things to others in the hope that such acts will somehow make him feel better. Cody's feelings of resentment are attached to his guilt over his father leaving. Thus, while still a boy, he wonders: "Was it something I said? Was it something I did? Was it something I didn't do, that made you go away?" (Tyler 47). Much of Cody's resentment is specifically directed against Ezra. He is jealous of Ezra because he is "lucky" and also because girls always seemed to like him better. In addition, he resents Ezra because his mother seems to like him better. During their childhood, Cody always does bad things and blames Ezra, hoping to get him in trouble with Pearl. Cody hates Ezra's "whistle" (a recorder) because it shows that Ezra is blissfully detached from the pains of life that Cody tries to inflict upon him. In a crucial part of the novel, Cody steals away Ruth, the only girl that Ezra has ever loved. By marrying her, Cody hopes to hurt Ezra; however, on the surface at least, Ezra seems to simply accept the sit
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Cody Tyler, Homesick Restaurant, De Mott, St Ambrose, Ezra Jenny, Cody Pearl, Pearl Cody, Beck Tull, Jenny Josiah, Anne Tyler, tull family, de mott, homesick restaurant, dinner homesick restaurant, dinner homesick, failure communicate, emotional nourishment, theme dinner homesick, represses feelings, seen symbol, cody ezra, cody's resentment, cody ezra jenny,
Approximate Word count = 1951
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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