The Distinction Between Tourist and Traveler in The Sheltering Sky - Essay Example

The distinction between tourist and traveler in “The sheltering sky” Paul Bowels’ novel, The sheltering sky, tells the story of a man and his wife, who takes a journey accompanied by one of their friend, a journey meant to release the tension existing in their marital life, and possibly bring back the long lost passion for intimacy between the couple. The couple, Port and Kit, takes a voyage to North Africa, so that they can change the experiences in their home environment, and possibly get an opportunity to bond and revive their love life once again (Bowles, 12). However, dangerous as the terrains in the Sahara Desert of North Africa are, so is the journey that the couple takes. While it was expected that the voyage would impact positively on the life and the relationship of the couple, things do not certainly turnout that away. On the contrary, the journey turns out to be a more painful ordeal for the couple, which does not grant them any of the anticipated happiness. The journey ends-up making the couple become more distanced, in their struggle to cope with the new environment and with each other, only to revive their friendship when it was too late, at a time Port was dying of typhoid (Bowles, 207). They are accompanied by Port’s buddy, Tunner, who is dull and unlikeable to Kit, and does not help to make the journey any better. It is this nature of experiences obtained by the three characters, which raises a question as to whether they were travelers or tourists. While the tourists take a voyage for the sake of enjoyment and obtaining beautiful experiences, the case is different for the three characters in this story that do not seem to have any goal for life, thus the movement and character of the three characters qualify them more as travelers. The distinction established between a tourist and a traveler is the fact that; “ while the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another” (Bowles, 6). This distinction perfectly places the three characters in the story, Port, Kit and Tunner in the position of travelers, since they embarked on a journey to North Africa in search for a serene environment, where the couple; Port and Kit could bond and possibly revive their love life, only to end up more distanced than they had gone. To justify the fact that the characters were travelers rather than tourists, the couple in the story had hardly lived in one place for long. They had consistently moved to different places based on different occasions and events, in the course of their 12 years of marriage. They had lived in Europe and the Near East during the war, then moved to the West Indies and South America during the war, and now they embark on a journey to north Africa (Bowles, 6). This is an indication that they had no permanent place they could call their home, since they are refugees of the World War II. Therefore, undoubtedly, both Port and Kit were travelers, who had no hurry of getting home, but kept moving around the world. The characters in this story are travelers, since they virtually have nothing they look forward to. They are not seeking for anything in particular, and are just a mere representation of a lost generation, trying to seek for happiness and comfort, ironically in the most desolate part of the world; the Sahara desert. They cannot arguably be seeking for pleasure and enjoyment as do tourists. Port seems to be merely passing time, without any good expectation. This is well illustrated by Port, when in the hotel room, " he could only lie as he was, breathing slowly, almost ready to fall asleep again, paralyzed in the airless room, not waiting for twilight but staying as he was until it should come" (Bowles, 4). He is just wandering around the world like a lost individual, who have no meaningful life to live. It is later discovered that Port was a writer in his earlier days of life, but he has now given up his career and he is no longer interested in making any gain out of life, not even enjoying life with his wife, but just want to merely enjoy her company. The three characters are trying to move from the war torn Europe to a different serene environment, they end-up travelling deep into the Sahara desert, where they immerse themselves into landscapes and cultures that alienates them even further (Bowles, 77). This is an environment that gradually destroys the foreigners, through introducing them to a lifestyle they had not been used to. It is a culture of immorality and promiscuity. The characters start engaging in immoral behaviors, with Kit engaging in intimacy with Tunner and Port with a North African Woman. Kit is a mere traveler, because she does not partake the journey with any other objective, other than just following his husband. Indeed, Kit is even more of a traveler, since she only followed Port to wherever he would travel, “without much of a complaint”, and does not go back after the death of her husband (Bowles, 6). While Port dies, out of typhoid, Kit engages with a man who had raped her with others before. This is a clear indication that Kit was a mere traveler, who could settle anywhere. Tunner is yet another character that is mere traveler according to this story. Tunner just joined Port and Kit in their journey without any major objective, and stays with them until he is sent back after having engaged in a sexual affair with Kit. He is the onl one who got back home, while his companions did not make it back. Conclusion There is no doubt that Paul Bowels’ novel, The sheltering sky, is a thrilling narration of a couple that has lost the meaning of life, and keeps moving from one part of the world to the other, with no clear target. The characters represented in this story are travelers, since they have no permanent home to come back to, as is expected of tourists, per the distinction given between tourists and travelers. The characters in the story are travelers, who never comes back home, though they do not seem to have one. Works Cited Bowles, Paul. The Sheltering Sky: With a Preface by the Author. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005. Print. Read More