Macon’s life after Sarah leaves takes a complete turn for the worst. Instead of sulking around, he looks at the separation as a chance to organize the house and his lifestyle; a lifestyle Sarah had refused to allow him. He begins by finding more convenient systems for tasks such as the laundry and washing the dishes. However, these “systems” quickly escalate into an unhealthy obsession. “At moments--while he was skidding on the mangled clothes in the bathtub or struggling into his body bag on the naked, rust stained mattress--he realized he might be carrying things too far.” Without Sarah around to keep him under control, Macon succumbs to his obsessive compulsive ways and becomes infatuated with finding the simplest, most rational ways to live his life. What this new lifestyle reveals about Macon, in my opinion, is that he is slowly falling apart. Sarah was his polar opposite: …show more content…
Through Edward, we get to see a lot of different aspects of Macon’s character. The exterior of Macon’s personality is that he doesn’t feel any emotion and is an extremely rational man. However, we’re given insight on the inner, more intimate layers to his personality. First and foremost, Edward was Ethan’s dog. Part of the reason Macon keeps Edward is because he can not bare to get rid of something that Ethan cared and loved so much. Any situation in which his family or someone else suggests the idea of getting rid of Edward, Macon gets defensive. He stands up for Edward and argues that Edward is only irritable when faced with an outsider. No matter what the situation is, Macon always responds with the same thing: “He was Ethan’s.” This physical attachment to Edward signifies his emotional attachment to the memory of his son. Macon may appear like he has moved past the death but, in reality, it still haunts daily. He can’t bare to part from Edward because, in his mind, it would be letting Ethan go