Garland McKenney: A Character Analysis

Overview

Garland McKenney is a central figure in two linked stories of Enid Shomer’s collection Tourist Season: “Fill In the Blank” and “Sweethearts.” She is a restless, risk‑seeking high‑school senior whose desire for intensity drives her into a robbery in New York City and later into a destructive affair with the married sheriff of her small Florida town. That affair culminates in arson — she burns down his secret fish camp — and a permanent flight from her hometown. Garland’s arc traces the collision of raw impulsiveness with the slow weight of guilt, leaving her isolated but still defiant.

Plot Role

Garland functions as the protagonist of the two stories that bookend the middle of the collection. In “Fill In the Blank,” she masterminds a robbery of a physical‑therapy office with her roommate Linda, then must face the legal and emotional fallout when Linda’s guilt fractures the friendship. In “Sweethearts,” the narrative flashes back to the months leading up to and including the arson, showing how her affair with Sheriff Clarence Coffey leads to betrayal and a violent rupture. Both episodes share a common template: Garland pushes a boundary, someone else pays a price, and she escapes without genuine remorse, though not without consequences.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Garland’s defining trait is a hunger for risk. The personality test she takes in “Fill In the Blank” underscores this: it reveals her need for danger and her unresolved tie to her long‑dead mother. She is drawn to the illicit — the robbery, the secret affair, the drugs and alcohol Clarence uses — because ordinary life feels suffocating. Her father, Eastman, is a rigid, humorless principal who invokes his dead wife as a weapon: “If your mother wasn’t already dead, this surely would kill her.” Garland bitterly sees herself as the daughter of a dead woman, and this resentment fuels her rebellion.

She lacks conventional empathy. After the robbery, Linda is wracked with guilt; Garland dismisses it: “Nobody’s life changes because their pocket gets picked.” When Linda calls her “weird,” Garland lashes out. The narrative makes clear that Garland cannot feel the remorse that society expects. Yet she is not a sociopath — she is deeply affected by the threesome Clarence springs on her at the fish camp, feeling betrayed and hurt. Her arson is an act of wounded pride as much as rage.

Chronological Arc

The stories are not presented in linear order, but the timeline can be reconstructed. Garland grows up in Sweetheart, Florida, motherless. Her only comfort is the housekeeper Carlene, who picks up after her and warns her about men. In late fall of her senior year, she meets Sheriff Clarence Coffey at a school drug assembly and feels an immediate magnetic pull. They begin a secret affair that lasts through the winter and spring. They meet in remote wilderness spots; Clarence is paranoid about being seen with a teenager.

In May, days before graduation, Garland navigates to Clarence’s private fish camp on the Sweetheart River. The trip strands her overnight. When she arrives, Clarence brings another woman, Shelley, for a threesome without warning. Feeling used and furious, Garland grabs his revolver, forces them to leave, and sets the camp on fire. She returns home to find her dog Judy poisoned — she believes Clarence is responsible — and flees Sweetheart, leaving a note for Carlene.

The story “Fill In the Blank” takes place after this flight, in New York, where Garland has moved and shares an apartment with Linda. She robs the physical‑therapy office with Linda, is caught, pleads guilty, receives probation and mandatory counselling. The story ends with Garland still wrestling with the personality test’s final question about what makes a good life, unable to answer it.

Relationships

Eastman McKenney — Her father is emotionally absent, using his dead wife as a moral cudgel. Garland feels he treats her like just another student. This neglect drives her to seek validation elsewhere.

Carlene — The housekeeper is the closest thing Garland has to a maternal figure. Carlene notices when Garland’s clothes are dirty or a button is missing. She warns Garland: “Men will promise you anything but they give you about six inches.” Garland snaps at her, asserting independence, but later Carlene receives a phone call from Garland in New York — a sign that the bond persists.

Linda — Initially Garland idolises Linda’s coolness. The robbery unites them, then tears them apart. Linda’s guilt and moral certainty make Garland feel exposed. Linda donates her share of the stolen money and distances herself. The friendship never recovers.

Sheriff Clarence Coffey — The affair is both exhilarating and oppressive. Clarence is older, married, a local celebrity. He controls their meetings, insists on secrecy, and uses drugs and alcohol to heighten the sex. Garland yields to his age and experience. But when he engineers a threesome without her consent, her trust shatters. The arson is a violent reclamation of agency.

Key Decisions and Consequences

1. Planning and executing the robbery with Linda — This decision fractures the friendship, leads to a criminal record, probation, and mandatory counselling. More deeply, it isolates Garland inside her own lack of remorse; she cannot connect to the moral world Linda inhabits.

2. Entering the affair with Clarence — She chooses a married, powerful man who can offer only secrecy. The affair gives her sexual awakening but traps her in a dynamic of risk and power imbalance. It ultimately leads to the arson and her flight from home.

3. Burning the fish camp — After the threesome betrayal, Garland grabs Clarence’s revolver and forces him and Shelley to leave, then sets the camp ablaze. The act ends the affair and forces her to become a fugitive. It is both a cathartic defiance and a crime that severs her last ties to Sweetheart.

4. Fleeing Sweetheart — Leaving her poisoned dog and a note for Carlene, she escapes to New York. This decision sets the stage for the later robbery and a life of rootlessness.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Garland is a walking embodiment of identity and transformation. She reinvents herself in New York, but carries the same risk‑seeking pattern. The secrets and guilt that torment other characters in Tourist Season — Sheila’s secret about her adopted daughter, Frieda’s hidden past — are present in Garland but she refuses to be burdened by them. Her guilt is shallow; she is always trying to outrun the “heaviness” of a settled life.

The aging and invisibility theme is inverted for Garland: she is young, but her mother’s early death and her father’s emotional death make her feel invisible already. She acts out to be seen. Travel and tourism as metaphor is explicit: she is a tourist in her own life, never truly belonging anywhere. She leaves Sweetheart for New York, but the move is an escape, not a destination. The fish camp fire is a symbolic burning of a place that was supposed to be a secret refuge but turned into a trap.

The story’s title “Tourist Season” refers to the seasonal influx of visitors to Florida; Garland is a permanent tourist, always passing through, never at home.

Five Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

1. What impels Garland to commit her crimes?
Evidence from the text shows she is driven by a deep‑seated hunger for risk and a need to escape the oppressive normalcy of her father’s world. The personality test in “Fill In the Blank” confirms her attraction to danger. She acts on impulse and lacks the brakes of guilt that hold others back.

2. Why does Garland burn down the fish camp?
She feels betrayed by Clarence when he brings Shelley for a threesome without her consent. The fire is a reaction of wounded pride and rage, reclaiming power in a situation where she had none. It also destroys the symbol of their secret life.

3. What role does race play in Garland’s story, particularly her relationship with Carlene?
Carlene is a Black housekeeper who serves a white family. Garland respects Carlene but also takes her for granted and snaps at her when challenged. The relationship reflects the racial hierarchy of the small Southern town. Carlene’s warnings are wise, but Garland’s dismissiveness shows her privilege and immaturity.

4. How do Garland’s two crimes — the robbery and the arson — differ in motive and consequence?
The robbery is purely material, driven by thrill and the desire for quick cash. Its consequence is a fractured friendship and a legal record. The arson is emotional and violent, stemming from personal betrayal. It ends her affair, forces her to flee, and leaves a deeper scar of self‑exile.

5. What might prevent Garland in the future?
The counselling she undergoes after the robbery may eventually help her recognize her patterns, but the story ends before that happens. Her inability to answer the test’s final question suggests she lacks self‑understanding. Without a change in her internal compass, she will likely repeat the cycle — find a new risk, burn another bridge.

For further exploration, see the ending explained and discussion of the travel as metaphor theme. Garland’s story also connects to the theme of identity and transformation, and to the broader collection’s questions and answers.