Character Sketch - The Accidental Tourist | English Literature for Grade 9 PDF Download

Main Characters of the Story

Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson reflects on his experiences as a traveller and gives us a glimpse of himself as a fun-loving and jovial person. He evaluates his behaviour in an objective way and admits to all his shortcomings. He admits that he gets confused easily and cannot remember even the most routine things like a lavatory in a cinema or the number of his room in the hotel.
He is unorganized and unsorted while travelling. He carries a hundred articles in his bag but fails to find the most important one. Sometimes he is careful about saving money as he carries tobacco with him while going to England and at other times misses his chance to get frequent flyer miles.
He is clumsy while picking up things and spills the drink twice on his co-passenger. Bryson gets hysterical on seeing his own blood but is not affected much when it comes to others.
He tries to be polite and respectful with women co-travellers but his accidental nature spoils his suave appearance. The manner in which he gets navy blue ink all over his face proves this.
Bill is a tolerant person and does not feel offended when his wife asks his children to put the lid off the food for him. He does note that other people fly first class to far off places like Bali via earning frequent flyer points but does not feel jealous. He knows that it is because of his own disorganized and haphazard style that he fails to avail such an opportunity. Overall, Bryson appears as a happy-go-lucky person who has no complaints whatsoever.