This dissertation studies the theme of time in Anne Tyler's fiction and centres specifically on how Jeremy Pauling in Celestial Navigation, Justine Peck in Searching for Caleb, Cody Tull in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, and Macon Leary in The Accidental Tourist respond to the losses brought about by the passage of time. The introduction establishes similarities between Tyler's emphasis on change, the passage of time, and reactions to change, and Paul Fraisse's focus on temporally organized behaviour. the three interrelated perspectives of the past, the present, and the future. The temporal horizon is used in this dissertation as a key to interpreting the temporal awareness of Tyler's characters and their behaviour in adapting to change. It is often memories of crises, such as unexpected death or desertion, which predominate the protagonist's temporal outlook at the expense of the present and the future. protagonists is to free themselves from the past and discover a greater significance in the present and the future. With the exception of Jeremy Pauling, they finally succeed in altering the hold of the past, and as a consequence of this shift of vision a better balance between their three temporal perspectives is achieved. dissertation, indicates that the majority of her protagonists in the end reach a moment of buoyancy when, at least temporarily in control of time, they apparently trust in the possibility of altering their situations. Because of this anticipation they also modify their behaviour and take steps to give their futures a new direction. While it may be an open question where the passage of time may lead them, the thesis indicates that in many of Anne Tyler's novels the endings seem suggestive of affirmative change.