Aging and Invisibility in Enid Shomer's Tourist Season

Defining the Thematic Claim

In Tourist Season, Enid Shomer examines how older women experience invisibility — a gradual erasure from social life, intimate relationships, and personal purpose. For characters like Frieda and Helen, aging brings a sense of being overlooked, undervalued, and stripped of identity. The collection suggests that invisibility is not merely physical but also psychological: it arises when society no longer sees older women as relevant or desirable. Shomer’s stories explore two responses to this condition: accommodation through volunteer work and retreat, and radical escape through literal de-aging. By tracing these arcs, the book questions whether visibility can be reclaimed or whether the price of transformation is too high.

Tracing the Theme Across Three Plot Segments

1. Frieda’s Retirement and the Loss of Purpose

In the story “Tourist Season,” Frieda’s husband Milt retires and suddenly occupies every moment of her day. Her internal reaction is dramatically negative: she daydreams about his death. The constant togetherness strips her of autonomy, and she feels a “bell that Frieda had heard ringing pleasantly in the distance all her life began striking right next to her head.” She volunteers as a Pink Angel at a hospital — a role that gives her purpose and removes her from Milt’s orbit. When Milt complains that people treat him like an “old douche bag,” Frieda reflects on her own experience as a former WASP pilot who was treated “almost like a man” during the war but later relegated to domestic life. Her invisibility is doubled: as an aging woman and as a former pilot whose skills are no longer valued. The chapter highlights how retirement and marriage can create a cage of enforced togetherness, pushing women toward quiet desperation or withdrawal.

2. Helen’s De-Aging as an Escape from Invisibility

In “Laws of Nature,” Helen is a retired teacher and doctoral student who has become “for all intents and purposes, invisible.” She recalls a student dumping dirty dishes on her table, and her graduate school comments being ignored. When she begins to physically de-age — hair darkening, skin firming, a wolf tail sprouting — her visibility returns. Family members and strangers suddenly compliment her, but she recognizes the praise as founded on insult: they are essentially saying she was “old, lethargic, and even dull” before. Her husband Claude becomes uncomfortable with her transformation, eventually leaving her for his secretary, Glenda — an older woman, as the housekeeper notes. Helen’s de-aging liberates her from invisibility but destroys her marriage and human connections. The story subverts the fantasy of youth by showing that reversing age does not automatically restore happiness or love.

3. The Collector’s Wider Context of Older Women

In the interview with Enid Shomer, she explicitly states her interest in older women and the changing life paradigm. The reading group questions ask readers to compare the younger and older protagonists, noting that the women range from seventeen to over seventy. Stories like “The Other Mother” and “Sweethearts” also feature women grappling with identity and marginalization, though the aging theme is most pronounced in Frieda’s and Helen’s narratives. The collection as a whole suggests that older women are tourists in their own lives — visiting roles and relationships that no longer fit, searching for a place where they are seen.

Character and Symbol Connections

Frieda and the Polaroid Photographs

Frieda’s neighbor Irv Snyder suffers memory lapses and takes Polaroid snapshots “as if he hoped to find himself in the images that bloomed on the glossy paper.” The Polaroid symbolizes the desire to capture and prove one’s existence — a way to push back against invisibility. Frieda and Milt later consider buying their own Polaroid camera, suggesting a shared longing to document their lives before they “shrivels up.” The symbol ties to the theme of aging and the fear of being forgotten.

Helen and the Wolf Tail

The wolf tail that sprouts on Helen represents her transformation from overlooked human to wild, instinctual creature. In Mexican folklore, as Benita explains, older women often turn into wolves or pigs when they become unwanted. The tail gives Helen a new kind of visibility — animalistic and powerful — but it also isolates her from family. She strokes it “absently, now proudly,” conflicted between human attachment and the pull of the pack. The wolf tail embodies the double-edged nature of escaping invisibility: freedom comes with loss.

Fire and the Pig Women

Benita also mentions that magical pigs “like to set fire to things.” Fire recurs as a symbol of destruction and renewal. In “Tourist Season,” the ambulance lights turn the fountain spray “blood-red, like some Old Testament plague,” while Helen imagines her own body as a “puddle of putrid flesh” if left on the ice. Fire and light expose the invisible and announce change, but they also threaten to consume the old life. The pig women’s fires suggest a chaotic, liberating rebellion against the erasure of age.

Complexity and Contradiction

Shomer’s treatment of aging and invisibility resists easy optimism. Frieda finds a measure of purpose through volunteering, but she remains trapped in a marriage that suffocates her. Helen’s de-aging grants her visibility, but at the cost of her husband, her human form, and her bond with her grandson Evan. The story ends with her preparing to leave human life behind entirely. This raises a troubling question: Is the only way for an older woman to be seen to become something no longer human? The contradiction lies in the fact that visibility — whether through youth or transformation — does not guarantee connection. When Helen becomes young and desirable, Claude abandons her; when Frieda asserts her own needs, Milt resents her. The collection suggests that invisibility is not solely a condition of age but of relational dynamics that devalue women as they move beyond reproductive and caregiving roles.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Frieda’s volunteer work as a Pink Angel function as a response to her invisibility?
Frieda volunteers to escape Milt’s constant presence and to reclaim a sense of purpose. The hospital work gives her a defined role and a place outside the home, but it also underscores that society expects older women to serve without compensation. Her invisibility at home is partially mitigated by her visibility as a helper, yet she remains invisible in her marriage.

2. In “Laws of Nature,” why do Helen’s family members react with both praise and discomfort?
Their praise is founded on the implicit insult that she previously looked terrible. They are happy for her but privately appalled because her transformation disrupts the expected order of aging. The discomfort arises from her becoming visibly younger than her own son, challenging norms of biological and social timelines.

3. What does the wolf tail symbolize about Helen’s escape from invisibility?
The tail represents a return to instinct, power, and wild freedom. It allows Helen to shed the social invisibility of old age. However, it also forces her to leave behind human relationships; she must say goodbye to her family and embrace a nonhuman identity.

4. How does the Polaroid camera connect to the theme of invisibility in Frieda’s story?
Irv Snyder uses the Polaroid to try to find himself in photographs, reflecting the need to document and validate existence. Frieda and Milt later discuss buying a camera to capture their lives before everything “shrivals up.” The camera literalizes the act of making oneself visible — but the images are fleeting and do not restore lost identity.

5. Compare the responses to aging in Frieda’s and Helen’s stories. Which strategy is more successful?
Frieda accommodates by seeking limited purpose outside the home, but remains unhappy with Milt. Helen radically transforms into a younger, nonhuman self, gaining visibility but losing her marriage and human form. Neither strategy fully succeeds: Frieda’s is a compromise that does not restore her sense of self, and Helen’s escape is pyrrhic. Shomer suggests that there is no easy solution to the invisibility of older women within the current social framework.