Familial Bonds Theme in The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer and Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson Essay Example

Love and Family are two words that most people see as synonymous terms. There is no Family without Love and there can’t be Love without Family, they go hand in hand in a way. Together these make up the theme of relationships, which is something that is prevalent in the book The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer, as well as the book Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. Within the theme of relationships are many areas in which they differ, however, they share many similarities as well. Even though the Protagonists of each story (Pearlie in The Story of a Marriage and Lillian in Nothing to See Here) are from different time periods, they are very alike in their approaches to their relationships. These books both share the theme of relationships, which ultimately bridges the gap between the two Protagonists, revealing the few ways they differ while also showing how extremely similar they are at their core. 

As similar as these characters can be, there are still some clear differences between Pearlie and Lillian’s themes of relationships. Throughout the course of the books The Story of a Marriage and Nothing to See Here, the basis of their relationships are quite different. In the book The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer, it depicts the protagonist Pearlie, who lives a happy life with her husband Holland. All is well until a man named Buzz from Holland’s past comes back to steal Holland away from Pearlie, due to their previous homosexual relationship. During The Story of a Marriage, Pearlie’s main story revolves around the romantic relationship she shared with her husband. Towards the beginning of The Story of a Marriage, Pearlie mentions how, “[Holland] told me that I didn’t really know his life, and of course he was right. Yet I married him. He was too beautiful a man to lose and I loved him” (Greer 7). Pearlie shows her love for Holland, which leads the reader to believe that Holland is at the top of all her present relationships. This idea is contradicted in the book Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, as this book depicts the protagonist Lillian who begins with no such romantic relationship. Lillian is a young woman who is still figuring her life out, which causes her to be very unsure of what she wants in life. Towards the beginning of Nothing to See Here, Lillian talks about how she, “I sporadically dated people who didn’t deserve me but thought they did” (Wilson 1). Straight from the beginning, Lillian makes it clear that she has never had a meaningful romantic relationship. This example of Lillian’s romantic relationships (or lack thereof) shows an obvious difference between Lillian and Pearlie’s individual themes of relationships. 

Another clear difference between these two books is where their individual issues with their relationships lie. For example, in the case of Lillian in Nothing to See Here, her family issues clearly stem from internal sources, such as her constant sense of self doubt. Although Lillian doesn’t outright say that she doubts herself, there are a couple incidents in which this idea is portrayed. Once Lillian was already acting as a parental figure in Roland and Bessie’s life, she imagined a world in which she got them to a normal state in which they’d be able to live back with their parents and she could leave (Wilson 107). This ultimately leads Lillian to quickly show her self doubt. Afterwards, she mentions that the kids, “… wouldn’t need me anymore. And I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad about it. And then I felt stupid, getting worried about my eventual success as a nanny, because I was dealing with children who burst into flames, so it would probably never actually happen (Greer 107). Not only is Lillian showing doubt in whether or not she wants to leave the kids behind, but she also doubts her ability to even raise them effectively. This example is shown again towards the end in a conversation with Madison, where Lillian thinks to herself of how she was happy she ultimately got to keep the kids, but was again doubtful in her ability thinking that she would somehow make them worse than they already were (Wilson 250-251). On the other hand, in The Story of a Marriage, Pearlie’s issues with family stem from another issue. In Pearlie’s case, her issues came from external sources, the main one being Buzz (her husband Holland’s past lover). Towards the beginning of The Story of a Marriage, Pearlie is confronted by Buzz, and is told that he wants to take Holland and renew their old relationship. Pearlie had then realized that she, “… had taken this man’s lover away and hidden him, safe from the world, in my vine-covered house. Now he had found him. He had come to me, to my front door, to break the curse I had not even known was on my life” (Greer 40). Pearlie discovered then that the obstruction to her relationship was Buzz. The examples provided from both of these books work together to show that even though they both have obstructions in the way of their relationships, the cause of these obstructions differ completely. Pearlie’s obstruction being an external factor, while Lillian’s obstruction is an internal factor.