The related themes of alienation and loneliness permeate this novel about the impact of a father's desertion on his wife and family. In the pivotal character of Pearl Tull, Tyler gives us an extremely alienated individual, at least in the sense of being alienated from her community. Mer Beck deserts her (after more than fifteen years of marriage), she determines to raise her three children single-handedly, without the slightest assistance from anyone in the neighborhood. Since she can't even confide in her close friend Emmaline that her husband abandoned her, Pearl obviously won't let on to the neighbors. Further, she refuses to discuss the desertion with her children; hence, they are left with the temporary impression that their salesman-father is away on a trip. While Pearl takes pride in her psychology ("They.....
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