Iris Hornstein Character Analysis: A Bridge Between Cultures

Overview

Iris Hornstein is the protagonist of the story “Chosen” in Enid Shomer’s short story collection Tourist Season. A Miami‑based speech therapist, she is visited by two Tibetan monks, Lu and Wangrit, who declare her the reincarnation of Saint Amar‑jampa. Though initially skeptical, she agrees to travel to Tibet with her husband Aaron to undergo training. After months of unconventional study and a meeting with the Dalai Lama, she accepts the role of a “bridge between cultures” and returns to Florida, where she resumes her therapy work while her two monks settle into American life as her assistants. Her arc explores identity, faith, and the everyday spaces where the extraordinary can take root.

Plot Role

As the central figure of “Chosen,” Iris drives the story’s exploration of whether spiritual calling can coexist with ordinary life. Her willingness to test the monks’ claim sets the plot in motion, and her eventual return to Miami rather than staying in exile underscores the collection’s theme of people being “tourists in their own lives.” She is not a passive saint; she remains a professional speech therapist, a wife, and a caregiver—roles that ground her transformation in the familiar.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Iris is curious and open‑minded. When Lu and Wangrit arrive, she does not dismiss them outright but instead enters their world, traveling to a remote Tibetan village. She submits to a strange curriculum: studying books of pictures while walking a treadmill, then listening to tapes of natural and mechanical sounds. The text states she had “nowhere near Iris’s capacity for absorption” compared to Aaron, indicating a deep intellectual appetite. She grows frustrated with the lack of direct instruction, yet perseveres. After months of this “training,” she meets the Dalai Lama and agrees to be a bridge—a decision that shows both courage and a pragmatic willingness to serve.

Back in Florida, she returns to her work with a stuttering child named Riley, using hand puppets and flash cards she created. Her use of Tibetan words like yak and yurt in the therapy reveals how she integrates her Tibetan experience into her professional life. She is also compassionate and patient; she allows Lu and Wangrit to become Yankee fans and to lounge by the pool, embracing their cultural adaptation.

Chronological Arc

Iris’s journey moves from mundane to extraordinary and back to a transformed mundane:

1. Ordinary Life (Miami): She is a speech therapist, married to Aaron, living a routine American life. The secret cover story for the trip is a “cut‑rate vacation package to Thailand.”

2. Calling and Journey: The monks appear. Iris and Aaron travel to a Tibetan village near Lhasa. She is isolated, training on a treadmill with books and sounds for two months.

3. Encounter with Authority: She meets the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. He asks her to be a bridge; she agrees.

4. Return and Integration: Back in Florida, Iris resumes her speech‑therapy practice. Lu and Wangrit become her assistants, adapting to American culture. She works with Riley, applying her new experiences.

The arc emphasizes that transformation need not discard the past; Iris returns to her same job and husband, but her identity is now layered.

Relationships

• Aaron: Her husband, a stained‑glass artist. He is supportive, taking a trek during her training and later translating his Tibetan inspiration into a piece called Tent Mandala. Their marriage is a stable foundation.

• Lu and Wangrit: The monks who first visited her. After the Tibet trip, they serve as her assistants and translators. They also act as a “bright eye” for her, guiding her spiritual reflection. The story shows them lounging by the pool, listening to baseball—a humorous cultural blend.

• The Dalai Lama: He appears in Dharamsala and formally asks Iris to be a bridge. His dialogue explains that “Tibet” means “toward Tibet” for him, and he encourages her to “live in the place of your heart.” She answers “Florida.”

• Riley: A stuttering boy she works with after returning. She uses flash cards with words like “Buddhist,” “Temple,” and “Tibet.” Riley stutters on certain syllables, but the work continues normally.

• Tanta: An ancestor who appears in Iris’s imagination during training, “shaped by the discipline of teaching school and the piety of keeping kosher.” Tanta is a silent, still presence—a kind of internal guide or inherited strength.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Each decision re‑enforces the theme that personal transformation does not require abandoning one’s roots.

Theme and Symbol Connections

• Identity and Transformation: Iris’s journey is the literal embodiment of being “chosen” and then choosing to integrate a new identity. She does not become a cloistered saint but a bridge—a figure who belongs to two worlds. Link: Identity and Transformation

• Travel and Tourism as Metaphor: Iris is a tourist in Tibet, but the collection suggests all characters are tourists in their own lives. Her experience of Tibet is mediated by books, sounds, and a treadmill—an almost simulated tourism that becomes real. Link: Travel and Tourism as Metaphor

• Marriage and Relationships: The stability of her marriage to Aaron provides a counterpoint to the spiritual upheaval. They return to Florida together, and his art (the Tent Mandala) reflects her journey. Link: Marriage and Relationships

• Aging and Invisibility: Though not directly a major theme for Iris, the story contrasts with others in the collection about older women. Iris is of a generation that can still reinvent herself; her age is not specified but she is a mid‑career professional. Link: Aging and Invisibility

• Secrets and Guilt: Iris’s trip is kept secret from her daughter and others. The lie about a “cut‑rate vacation to Thailand” creates a small gap between her public and private life. Link: Secrets and Guilt

Five Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Iris agree to go to Tibet despite her skepticism?
   The text shows she is curious and open‑minded. She does not dismiss the monks outright; instead, she allows the possibility to be tested. Her willingness to “try it” reflects a personality that values experience over certainty.

2. What is the purpose of the treadmill training with books and sounds?
   Lu tells her to “study the pictures” and later switches to sounds. The training seems designed to cleanse her mind of intellectual patterns and to open her to sensory information without analytical interference. It is a preparation for her role as a receiver or bridge.

3. How does Iris’s relationship with Aaron change after the Tibet trip?
   They remain a couple, and Aaron uses his experience to create art (Tent Mandala). Their bond appears strengthened by shared adventure, though the division of labor (she trains, he treks) reinforces their existing roles.

4. What does the Dalai Lama mean when he says “I live in Tibet”?
   He distinguishes between the English word “Tibet” and the Tibetan word “Bet,” which means “to Tibet” or “toward Tibet.” For him, home is a direction of the heart rather than a geographical location. He encourages Iris to find her own “place of the heart,” which she identifies as Florida.

5. Why does Iris continue working as a speech therapist after becoming a saint?
   She chooses to integrate her spiritual role into her existing life rather than abandon it. The work with Riley—using Tibetan words—shows she can bridge two worlds in everyday practice. This choice aligns with the collection’s theme that transformation can occur within ordinary routines.

For further discussion, visit the Ending Explained or explore Questions and Answers.