The Symbol of Fire in Enid Shomer's Tourist Season

Fire as a Concrete Symbol of Destruction and Renewal

In Enid Shomer’s interconnected story collection Tourist Season, fire appears as a rare but forceful concrete symbol. It is first introduced as a literal act of arson—the deliberate burning of Sheriff Clarence Coffey’s secret fish camp by the teenaged Garland McKenney. This single event radiates outward, coloring Garland’s past rule-breaking and her eventual transformation. Fire is not a frequent motif across the book; it appears directly only in Garland’s two stories, “Fill In the Blank” and “Sweethearts,” and is referenced in her internal reflections. Yet its concentrated use gives it powerful symbolic weight, linking rebellion, cleansing, and the severing of toxic ties.

Where Fire Appears in the Narrative

The central fire scene occurs near the end of Chapter 7, “Sweethearts.” After navigating the Sweetheart River to reach Clarence’s secluded camp, Garland discovers that he has brought another woman, Shelley, for a threesome. Feeling betrayed and degraded, Garland seizes Clarence’s revolver, forces the couple to leave, and then sets the camp ablaze. The fire destroys the physical structure that housed the illicit relationship. Garland returns home to find her dog poisoned, suspects Clarence, and flees town, leaving a note for the housekeeper Carlene. The flames thus mark a violent turning point: the end of her affair and the beginning of her flight from Sweetheart, Florida.

Fire also echoes earlier in the collection. In Chapter 3, “Fill In the Blank,” Garland retrospectively lists “arson” among her past offenses alongside robbery and graffiti. During her mandated counseling, she visualizes her rule-breaking as “herself in a car, careening along a curving mountain road”—a metaphor of speed and danger. Arson, though not described in detail, is clearly part of a pattern of escalating risk. The fish camp fire therefore emerges as the most dramatic expression of this pattern, converting a juvenile tendency into an adult act of agency.

How the Symbol’s Meaning Changes

Initially, fire signifies raw, impulsive rebellion. Garland does not plan the fire; it erupts from her sense of betrayal. The act is aggressive, destructive, and illegal—a direct challenge to the authority Clarence represents (he is the town sheriff). In that moment, fire is the weapon of a young woman who has been used and dismissed.

But as the story unfolds, the fire gains a secondary meaning: cleansing. By burning the camp, Garland destroys the physical site of her exploitation. The flames erase a space built on secrecy and male privilege. She does not merely walk away; she erases. This aligns with the broader theme of transformation that runs through Tourist Season—characters often have to obliterate one version of themselves to create another. In the reading group questions, one prompt asks about women who “leave their old lives behind and find new ones.” Garland’s fire is the literal match that ignites that departure.

Finally, fire becomes a marker of unresolved guilt and absent remorse. In “Fill In the Blank,” Garland confesses that she has trouble feeling genuine regret. When she recalls the arson during her therapy session, she does not feel shame; instead, she experiences a strange optimism, “as if she were anticipating something beyond the punishment.” Fire, for her, remains a tool of forward motion, not a source of moral reckoning. This makes the symbol ambiguous: it both liberates her and confirms her emotional detachment.

Connections to Characters and Themes

Garland McKenney: Fire is Garland’s signature act of defiance. It connects to her personality test results from “Fill In the Blank,” which reveal her “hunger for risk” and her inability to feel remorse. The fire dramatizes her refusal to be a passive victim. Yet it also isolates her—she loses Linda as a friend, and the fire precipitates her flight from Sweetheart.

Clarence Coffey: Though fire is directed at his property, Clarence himself remains untouched. The fire does not punish him; it only inconveniences him. This underscores the theme of male privilege: Garland can burn a camp, but the sheriff retains his power and position.

Theme of Identity and Transformation: Fire enables Garland’s reinvention. After the fire, she leaves rural Florida for New York, where she later works dead-end jobs and plans a robbery. The fire is the catalyst for her new identity as a fugitive and rule-breaker. It embodies the idea that some transformations require destruction before reconstruction.

Theme of Secrets and Guilt: Fire destroys evidence—of the affair, of Garland’s presence. Yet secrets endure. Garland keeps the fire a secret, and her sealed juvenile record protects her from prosecution. The fire thus represents the attempt to erase secrets, even as the guilt (or lack thereof) lingers.

Theme of Women’s Agency: In a collection where many women feel trapped in relationships, fire becomes a tool of agency. Garland chooses to burn rather than suffer silently. This resonates with Frieda’s desire for flight in “Tourist Season” and Janet’s solitary dive in “Rapture.” Fire is a violent, masculine-tinged instrument repurposed for female rebellion.

Study Questions with Answers

1. Why does Garland choose to burn the fish camp instead of simply leaving?

   • Garland’s act of arson goes beyond escaping the scene; it is a deliberate destruction of the space where she was betrayed. By burning the camp, she reclaims control and ensures that the site of her humiliation cannot be used again. The fire is both revenge and a symbolic purification—it wipes clean her connection to Clarence and the secrecy of the affair. This aligns with her personality test results, which show she is drawn to risk and has difficulty feeling remorse. For Garland, the fire is a satisfying action that releases tension, not a moral decision.

2. How does the fire connect to Garland’s earlier crimes described in “Fill In the Blank”?

   • In “Fill In the Blank,” Garland lists robbery, graffiti, and arson among her offenses. The fish camp fire is the only arson scene depicted directly in the collection. It represents an escalation from petty theft to a more violent, destructive act. During her therapy, she reflects that her crimes are like “another tap on the gas pedal”—she uses them to keep moving forward, never to dwell on consequences. The fire thus continues her pattern: it gives her a jolt of adrenaline and a clean break, but it also reveals her inability to process guilt. The lawyer in New York notes that confession might relieve her, yet Garland feels no need to confess. The fire confirms her emotional trajectory.

3. What role does the fire scene play in the theme of transformation across Tourist Season?

   • The fire functions as a literal turning point for Garland’s character arc. Before the fire, she is a high-school senior in a small town, entangled with a much older man. After the fire, she becomes a fugitive who reinvents herself in New York. This mirrors transformations in other stories: Iris Hornstein travels to Tibet to become a Buddhist saint; Sheila flees Mobile after learning the truth about her daughter’s kidnapping; Helen in “Laws of Nature” appears to be aging backward. Like these women, Garland must destroy her existing life to begin a new one. The reading group questions ask whether catalysts for change come from within or from circumstance. Garland’s fire is both—circumstance (betrayal) triggers an internal impulse for destruction, which then enables a new identity.

4. In what ways does fire highlight the gender dynamics in Garland’s relationship with Clarence?

   • The fish camp is Clarence’s space, a secret retreat for his sexual encounters. By burning it, Garland seizes a form of power that her gender and age typically deny her. Clarence, as sheriff and adult male, holds authority over her. The revolver she uses to force him out is also a male-coded object, but she wields it to command the situation. Fire is a leveling force: it does not discriminate between the sheriff’s property and anyone else’s. However, the consequences of the fire are asymmetrical. Clarence faces no legal repercussions—he does not report the fire because it would expose his own misconduct. Garland, meanwhile, must flee and live with the secret. The fire exposes the double standard: a man’s indiscretion can be hidden, but a woman’s rebellion forces her to become an exile.