The Wizard's Tide Hiding From Reality

Hiding From Reality
In The Wizard’s Tide by Frederick Buechner, the characters are subjected to the uncontrollable spiral of the Great Depression. In the Schroeder family, there is difficulty transitioning to the new economy and sustaining themselves in an unfamiliar lifestyle. Due to the family’s former wealthy and comfortable living situation, the members are reluctant to accept and change their ways of life. This is particularly hard on Teddy as he is only a child when he loses the comfortable life he has known. Much like his parents, Teddy only wants happiness;. To him, happiness is created through stability and unity as a family. Because Teddy and his parents have varying ideals for happiness, they have different ideas on how to achieve
Mrs. Schroeder believes that having wealth is the only way to achieve happiness. This is because she was raised rich and was used to the rich life. Money used to shield shielded her from real life issues before so now she believes that they can shield her from problems caused by The Great Depression. This leads her to stress about money and causes Mr. Schroeder to crumble under the pressure of Mrs. Schroeder’s financial wants. Due to this, Teddy struggles when looking for guidance to balance and stability during a time of need. During the time period that Teddy lived in, it was the societal norm for the man of the house to provide for everyone. So growing up, he was raised to think that Mr. Schroeder, the man of the house, should be in charge. After the Great Depression hits, Mr. Schroeder loses his job and starts drinking to shield himself from reality. He does it to hide from his feelings of failure to provide for his family. From then on, there is even less guidance from the parents of the family. Grandma Schroeder always compares him to his dad by saying, “[y]You should be out playing games with the other boys more…...[w]When your father was your age, he could outswim boys twice your size.” (18), or by being “proud that she had seen him so far out (in the ocean) and doing the kind of thing that she thought boys were supposed to do for a change” (44). Because of this, Teddy feels thatlike just because he is of the male gender, that he should rise to the occasion to help run the household, even though he is still a child. He feels that if he doesn’t take control, everything will fall apart. With the constant fear of losing everyone, Teddy becomes paranoid of every little thing or disagreement that might set the family apart. This stress drives him to look for distractions to help him live through The