The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy essays

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy essays One theme presented in Pat Conroy's "The Prince of Tides," is that people have difficulty dealing with problems, so they run from them. People handle problems in different ways. Some people try to fix their problems but others don't know what to do and therefore run from them. Running from their problems seems like the right thing to do but in the end it just makes things worst because you can't run from them your entire life. In The Prince of Tides, Tolitha, Savannah and Tom had family problems and tried several things to escape them. Tolitha is Tom and Savannah's grandmother who runs from her family in order to find adventure and happiness. "Her iconoclastic attitudes and behavior make her to some extent an even more amusing figure, though that in no way detracts from Amos's unique stature" (Burns 22). Tolitha leaves her husband Amos and her son Henry during the Depression because of a shortage of money. Amos was a barber and during the Depression he quit his job to preach the Lor ds word in front of a pharmacy. Amos was getting paid less than working at the barbershop. "'We were starving or close to it'" (Conroy 314). That is when Tolitha left Amos and Henry. Tolitha went to Atlanta and got a job at a department store, which is where she met Papa John. Not long after meeting Papa John, she married him. After five years of being married to Papa John, Tolitha took Henry to Atlanta where she was living. Tolitha was married to Papa John about as long as she was married to Amos. Later Papa John died and Tolith a went crazy. "She was the kind of woman who knew instinctively that extreme happiness could not be duplicated; she knew how to shut a door properly on the past" (Conroy 147). Tolitha left Atlanta and went to Hong Kong, Africa, and India after Papa John died. Once again Tolitha was escaping the pain she had from Papa John dying. Tolitha went around the world by ship from port to port. She met a couple of guys here and there and she...