The Tin Can Tree (29 page)

AT:
The seeds of the story were sown fifty-odd years ago, when I was a child so young that my mother and her friends talking over their coffee didn’t worry that I was hearing what they said. A woman told my mother that her friend had just lost a daughter, and that the daughter had been the less favored of two. My mother said, “Oh, yes, it’s always so much harder when it’s the one you love less.” Even as a child—well, especially as a child!—I was
fascinated by that. Why wouldn’t it have been harder to lose the one you loved more? I thought about it for years, and
The Tin Can Tree
is what came out of it.

Q:
The book begins with a funeral for a six-year-old child, which sets the mood for the entire novel. Is this reflective of your mood at the time? Was this an emotionally difficult book for you to write?

AT:
At the time, I was a young wife with no children. I could never have written this book if I had had a child of my own, particularly a child Janie Rose’s age. (Years later, when I wrote about the death of a child in
The Accidental Tourist
, I made very certain that the child was younger than either of my own two were at the time.) I was able to write about Janie Rose’s death only because it was a sort of abstract problem—why is it harder if the child is less favored?—and not in the least reflective of anything going on in my life.

Q:
The characters in the three-person row home of
The Tin Can Tree
are a somewhat motley crew, thrown together by chance and circumstance. Despite their various disappointments in their previous family lives, they have all managed to come together and form a sort of makeshift family. How important do you think it is for people to feel included, to have a particular group to which they really belong?

AT:
I do believe we all need to belong to some kind of nesting unit to feel happy, and I love to see the odd forms that some of those units can take—the “artificial families” that compensate for situations where the biological families are less than ideal.

Q:
The book shows several instances of people testing others’ love for them. Simon tests his mother by running away from home; Joan tries to test James by running away as well; and Ansel tests James on an almost daily basis by making extraordinary demands of him, such as foot rubs and meals served on trays. Do you think this is often the case in the real world? Do people do hurtful things to test one another, to find out how much others are willing to do for them?

AT:
I’m not sure I agree that these people are testing one another. Simon and Joan are acting out of pure pain, and Ansel is so self-involved that he probably doesn’t realize how he strains James’s good will.

Q:
The Tin Can Tree
takes place in a very short time span and deals with a very specific situation—namely, the aftermath of a child’s death. It provides a snapshot of its characters at one of the hardest times of all of their lives, revealing some at their worst and others at their best. How differently would the characters have behaved had the book spanned a longer period or shown them in more ordinary conditions?

AT:
Well, for starters, I don’t think they’d have been very interesting. These are the most commonplace people, really, leading nearly motionless lives. Probably that was my unconscious motivation in confining the book to such a small window of time.

Q:
Who is your favorite character in
The Tin Can Tree?
Is there one character with whom you particularly identify? Who is your least favorite?

AT:
My favorite was Janie Rose. She began as merely a puppet—I just needed a lesser-loved child who had died, period—but then it seemed she asserted that spiky personality of hers, announced all her quirks and her funny habits and small distresses, and I was won over. My least favorite—no surprise—was Ansel, although I suspect I may have liked him better back when I was writing about him.

Q:
It seems to me that Joan and James are responsible to a fault. Their sense of obligation to others—though a very honorable trait—prevents them from ever being truly happy themselves. Do you think familial/interpersonal responsibilities often get in the way of people’s romantic happiness or ability to live their own lives? Are such obligations too burdensome to be realistic? Where do you draw the line between positive and negative self-sacrifice?

AT:
I think that’s a line that can be very blurry. James, in my opinion, has been crippled by an unwarranted sense of responsibility, but I’m not sure we could say the same about Joan.

Q:
Some characters—Missouri and the Potter sisters in particular—can be quite quirky and funny at times. Did you have fun writing their scenes?

AT:
I did. I enjoyed the tobacco-stringing scene particularly—I always love situations in which women get together and talk without thinking about it while they’re involved in some occupation. And I found the Potter sisters a relief from the mournfulness of the other characters.

Q:
Several characters in the book attempt to escape their problems (often by running away) but ultimately fail. Even James, whose resolve is the strongest, cannot break entirely free from his unsatisfying family life in Caraway; he remains burdened with an overly demanding and needy brother. Do you think that people are basically stuck with whatever problems life deals them? Is there ever any point in trying to escape our problems, or will they follow us wherever we go?

AT:
Probably they wouldn’t
have
to follow us, but I think people often have a sort of signature problem that defines their lives, and I’m always fascinated by the ways in which they cling to their particular problem when it might conceivably be possible to dump it.

Q:
The characters’ speech patterns seem to say a great deal about their mental and emotional health. Mrs. Pike—a former chatterbox—falls completely silent after her daughter’s death, while hypochondriac Ansel and the spinster Potter sisters talk almost incessantly to whoever will listen. What do you think a person’s verboseness or lack thereof says about his or her overall emotional well-being?

AT:
Obviously Mrs. Pike’s uncharacteristic silence reflects her grief, but the other characters’ talkativeness has more to do with my interest in run-on speech. I always think, when I come upon such people in real life, How can they talk so much and say so little? But then I begin to notice the little plums that drop from their speech without their realizing it—the secrets they give away unintentionally. I love reproducing that sort of speech on paper.

Q:
At one point, Joan feels homesick, “but not for any home she’d ever had” (
this page
). The whole novel, in fact, has a feeling of nostalgia and longing for experiences not yet had. Do you think this is a common feeling in the real world? Can people be nostalgic or homesick for people, places, and things they’ve never experienced? Was this an issue that particularly interested you at the time?

AT:
As near as I can remember, that reference to Joan’s homesickness has to do with the fact that she didn’t have a real family when she was a child—or not the Dick-and-Jane kind of family we imagine all families to be. So when she longs for “home,” it’s not a home she’s had any personal experience of. Anyone who feels the same lack will probably experience that same sense of homesickness, but I don’t mean to imply that it’s a common emotion.

Q:
The party in the final chapter seems to be a sort of return to normalcy for the Pikes, Potters, and Greens. There is an overwhelming sense that, despite Janie Rose’s death, the entire cast of characters will ultimately be all right—at least as all right as they have ever been. Did you choose to end on this note in order to reassure your readers that recovery is possible or even inevitable?

AT:
I suspect that what I wanted to say was, human beings have a way of going on, even after experiences that seem unbearable. I don’t think that the Pikes will ever be the same, but I do think they’ll start getting up in the morning again and gathering with their neighbors again, and they’ll even manage to laugh sometimes.

Q:
What was the most frustrating aspect of writing
The Tin Can Tree?
What was the most rewarding?

AT:
I don’t remember any frustrating aspects—perhaps if I’d been more frustrated, the book would have been much better! I do remember my pleasure in creating what amounted to a portrait in negative space—defining Janie Rose by all the qualities that were missing now that she was gone.

R
EADING
G
ROUP
Q
UESTIONS AND
T
OPICS FOR
D
ISCUSSION

1. The story begins after the death of six-year-old Janie Rose. How do the different characters mourn her? Are their individual mourning styles reflective of their respective personalities? In what ways does the child’s death propel some of the characters’ lives into action? In what ways does it stop other characters’ lives in their tracks?

2. Joan has lived her entire life feeling like a guest in other people’s homes—even the home of her own parents. Is this something she brings upon herself? Or is she a victim of circumstance? What does this say about her character?

3. How would you characterize James and Ansel’s relationship? Is it symbiotic or parasitic in nature? Would Ansel be able to survive without James? Would James without Ansel? Is James’s caretaking more helpful or harmful to his “sick” brother? After running away and abandoning the rest of his family, why is James unable to cut that final cord and leave Ansel?

4. James and Ansel have both run away from their home in Caraway, and both Joan and Simon attempt to run away from Larksville. What are they trying to achieve by running away? Are they running toward something positive in their lives, or merely running away from something
negative? Does running away ultimately solve these characters’ problems? Whose experience with running away is the most successful and whose is the least so? Why?

5. What do you think James’s love of photography reveals about him? Does his need to preserve and protect his memories stem from his rocky family history and his parents’ abandonment? He claims that he can photograph people exactly as he remembers them; does this mean that he sees the people in his life as two-dimensional? In what ways is he himself two-dimensional?

6. After Janie Rose’s untimely death, Ansel becomes obsessed by the concept of his own mortality. He seems to be more concerned with how he will be remembered in death than with how well he is treated and loved in life. In what ways does his fixation on and fear of death prevent him from being able to fully live his life? Why, for instance, does he cut short his attention to Maisie Hammond? Do you think he has written off the possibility of a romantic relationship in his life? If so, why?

7. Missouri and Joan scheme to restore Mrs. Pike to emotional health by putting her back to work. Why does this plan ultimately fail? Was Missouri right in claiming that the only person who can pull Mrs. Pike out of her silence is Simon?

8. Joan is constantly attending to other people’s needs and wants, often at the expense of her own. Is this a positive character trait? Do you see her return to Larksville after her attempt to run away as a continuation of putting others’ needs before her own, or do you think she is finally doing what she really wants to do? Is her decision to return a demonstration of strength or of weakness?

9. Simon learns to deal with loss at a very early age. How do you think this will affect his emotional development throughout his life? At the end of the book, he seems happy to have won back his mother’s attention; is his recovery that simple? Does his grieving period end with the close of the last chapter of the book, or will it continue?

10. Why did Anne Tyler name the novel after Janie Rose’s tin can tree? What significance does the tree have for Janie’s mourners?

11. The picture Anne Tyler paints of Janie Rose is a colorful juxtaposition of great optimism (drawing pictures of apple trees where only barren bushes exist in reality) with great self-doubt (wearing layer upon layer of underwear for comfort and security). Can you imagine Janie as an adult? Do you think her optimistic side would have overcome her insecurities, or vice versa?

12. The world of
The Tin Can Tree
is divided into responsible caretakers and those they care for. Which characters fit into the first category and which fit into the second? Is there any overlap between the two?

13. Anne Tyler creates some very humorous characters, such as Missouri and the Potter sisters. What do you think of these characters? Are there aspects of their behavior that you find particularly amusing? Are we laughing at them or with them?

14. What significance does clothing hold for the characters in
The Tin Can Tree?
Janie Rose used to take comfort in wearing multiple layers of underwear and would often cry while putting on her dresses; Mrs. Pike’s state of emotional health can be gauged by how much she cares about her clothing and appearance; James uses Joan’s clothing
to determine what season it is and “resents” any new clothes she buys until he has gotten used to them. Why do these characters put so much stock in what they—or other people—are wearing? What do their various attitudes toward clothing say about them?

15. Missouri claims that the “bravest thing about people … is how they go on loving mortal beings after finding out there’s such a thing as dying” (
this page
). Do you agree? Would you characterize this human propensity to love as bravery? Which characters do you think exhibit this quality, and which do not?

16. How would you describe the ending of
The Tin Can Tree
? On the most basic level, is it a happy ending or not? Do you think James’s prospects look hopeful? What about Joan’s? Where do you see the characters five years after the book ends? Ten years? Fifteen?