Marriage and Relationships in Tourist Season: Secrets, Infidelity, and the Passage of Time

Marriages and romantic partnerships in Enid Shomer’s Tourist Season rarely follow a straight path. Across the collection, intimacy is tested by hidden truths, straying partners, a loss of shared purpose, and the slow erosion that time brings. The unifying claim is that relationships in these stories function as a crucible: they force characters to confront who they are—and who they have become—even as the need for connection clashes with the desire for personal freedom. This analysis traces that claim through three distinct couples, connects their struggles to key symbols, and addresses the contradictions that make Shomer’s portraits feel real.

Frieda and Milt: The Weight of Togetherness

In “Tourist Season,” Frieda and Milt have retired to a Florida condo. Their marriage, once balanced by work and children, now suffocates under constant proximity. Frieda daydreams of Milt’s death and feels deep shame about the thought. She signs up as a hospital volunteer partly to escape his presence. Milt, a former salesman who defined himself by his career, has no outlet for his energy and clings to Frieda. Their arguments over a bus trip to St. Augustine reveal a central tension: Frieda craves novelty and autonomy, while Milt prefers the familiar.

Yet their relationship is not merely conflict. Shomer shows them entwined in the high bed of the bed-and-breakfast, Milt’s leg hooked around hers “like an anchor.” Their physical affection survives alongside resentment. Frieda’s past as a Women’s Airforce Service Pilot—a time when she “swaggered” and felt twenty—remains a secret part of her identity that Milt cannot fully access. The gap between who she was and who retirement has made her strains the marriage. When she tells Milt, “I married you for better or for worse. But not for lunch,” the line crystallizes how companionship can tip into claustrophobia.

The character of Irv Snyder, wandering the building with his Polaroid camera, mirrors the couple’s struggle: he tries to capture moments to prove he still exists. Frieda and Milt also seek snapshots of a marriage that feels increasingly elusive. The image of fire—the red lights of the ambulance turning water “blood-red” in Frieda’s mind—suggests a destructive potential simmering beneath the surface of their daily routine.

Garland and Clarence: Secrecy and the Thrill of Risk

In “Sweethearts,” Garland McKenney, a high‑school senior, begins a clandestine affair with Clarence, the married sheriff. The relationship is built on risk: they meet in the woods, avoid public places, and Garland lies to her father and the housekeeper Carlene. For Garland, the secrecy itself becomes addictive. She feels her body come alive “like a plucked string.” But the affair is also an act of rebellion against her small town and her own lack of direction.

Clarence’s marriage is never shown, only implied through his paranoia about being recognized. Garland values his unavailability—“That’s one of the things I like about you,” she tells him. Their intimacy is charged by the very constraints that prevent it from becoming ordinary. Yet the relationship creates collateral damage: Garland neglects her schoolwork, and Carlene’s warning—“men will promise you anything but they give you about six inches”—proves prescient. The affair is a secret that isolates Garland further.

This story complicates the theme by showing how infidelity can feel like a life force. Garland’s earlier robbery with Linda (in “Fill In the Blank”) and her inability to feel genuine remorse suggest a pattern: she uses relationships—whether criminal or romantic—to escape herself. The wolf tail could symbolize the wildness she pursues, while the pager number 666 hints at the destructive impulse she refuses to name.

Riva and David: Forbidden Love and Family Secrets

In “The Summer of Questions,” Riva, a Radcliffe student, works a summer job and develops a romantic relationship with her cousin David. The story explores how family secrets and unspoken rules shape intimacy. Riva’s mother trusts her implicitly, so lying to spend time with David is “surprisingly easy.” David’s behavior is erratic—moody one day, passionate the next—but Riva feels the pride of conquest: “Family knockout falls for family brain.”

Their kiss in a parked car after a family weekend at the beach is tender and illicit. Shomer suggests that the relationship is a way for Riva to test boundaries and gain a sense of power. David’s interrogations of her (what size dress? Did she suffer cramps?) are eerily probing, hinting at a need for control that mirrors the larger theme of relationships as a means of self-exploration rather than genuine partnership.

The bookkeepers Riva works with, especially Alma, represent an older model of marriage and work: Alma never married, regrets not “meeting a doctor,” and lives with her invalid mother. Their focus on lipstick and diets contrasts with Riva’s intellectual ambitions. The story questions whether traditional marriage is a trap or a goal. Riva’s summer of questions—and her lies to her mother—show how family expectations and romantic desire can pull a young woman in opposing directions.

Complexity and Contradiction

Shomer avoids easy judgments. Frieda loves Milt even as she imagines his death. Garland’s affair is both liberating and self‑destructive. Riva’s romance with David is innocent yet tinged with the forbidden. Marriage in these stories is not simply a battleground or a haven; it is a mirror that reflects each character’s deepest fears and longings.

The Polaroid photographs that Irv Snyder takes—of strangers, of the beach—embody the characters’ attempts to capture a moment of connection that may already be fading. The fire that Frieda hallucinates in the ambulance lights suggests both passion and destruction. The wolf tail and pager number 666 in Garland’s story hint at forces that cannot be domesticated. These symbols reinforce the idea that relationships are dynamic, often messy, and never fully visible.

The reading group questions in Chapter 13 ask directly: “What role do marriage and work play in these stories? In which are the two at war?” Frieda’s work as a pilot gave her an identity separate from Milt; when it ended, the marriage strained. Garland has no work that anchors her, so relationships become a dangerous substitute. Riva is caught between her studies and her family’s expectations. The collection suggests that a healthy relationship requires both partners to retain some independent purpose—otherwise, the bell of togetherness strikes too loudly.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Frieda’s past as a Women’s Airforce Service Pilot affect her marriage to Milt in “Tourist Season”?
   Frieda’s experiences flying during the war gave her a sense of freedom and competence that retirement erodes. Milt cannot share this part of her life, and she feels trapped by their constant togetherness. Her memories of flying contrast with the narrowness of their condo routine, creating resentment that she can only express through fantasies of escape.

2. Why does Garland McKenney keep her relationship with Sheriff Clarence a secret, and what does the secrecy reveal about her character?
   The secrecy fuels the thrill of the affair for Garland. She tells Clarence that his unavailability is one of the things she likes about him. The hiding reflects her need for risk and her unwillingness to be accountable. It also isolates her from her family and housekeeper, repeating a pattern of rule‑breaking seen in her earlier robbery.

3. What role do family secrets play in Riva’s romance with her cousin David in “The Summer of Questions”?
   Riva lies to her mother about her whereabouts, and David keeps the relationship hidden from his parents. Their cousinship adds a layer of forbiddenness that both attracts and unnerves Riva. The family secrecy mirrors the larger theme of characters hiding parts of themselves from the people closest to them.

4. How does the Polaroid camera function as a symbol for marriage in “Tourist Season”?
   Irv Snyder uses his Polaroid to take snapshots of strangers, hoping to find himself in the images. Similarly, Frieda and Milt try to capture moments of happiness (the trip to St. Augustine) that feel staged. The instant photographs represent the fragile, ephemeral nature of connection—marriage can be developed and preserved, but it can also fade.

5. In what ways are the characters in these stories “tourists in their own lives” when it comes to their relationships?
   The reading group questions in Chapter 13 ask this directly. Frieda and Milt are tourists in their retirement, visiting old haunts without truly inhabiting them. Garland treats her affair as a temporary escape from her real life. Riva visits her cousin’s world without fully committing. Each character observes their own relationships from a distance, never quite settling into a sense of home.