Average Waves in Unprotected Waters

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on October 25, 1941. At the age of seven, her family moved to a Quaker commune in Celo, in the mountains of North Carolina, where they stayed until she was 11. During this time, her education was informal; she did chores and received lessons from various members of the commune and some via correspondence school, but she did not attend public school. This unorthodox upbringing left her feeling disconnected from the world. When the family moved and Tyler entered public school in Raleigh, North Carolina, she felt like an outsider, and that feeling remained with her throughout her life. This sense of looking at the world from the outside led her to become a writer. Bet Blevins similarly embodies the idea of being an observer rather than a participant in society at the end of “Average Waves in Unprotected Waters” when she resolves that her existence after Arnold will be about watching life unfold before her.

Tyler’s greatest literary influence is modern/contemporary short story writer Eudora Welty, from whom she learned that there is beauty in studying life’s everyday details. As an observer of society rather than a participant, Tyler followed in Welty’s footsteps, claiming the otherwise pedestrian moments of life, love, and family as her signature motifs.