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Vladimir hated his parents for dragging him here. He hated his grandmother’s creaky wooden house and he hated the dirty smelly locals. He missed their apartment in downtown Moscow. Most of all, though, he hated his mother because she didn’t speak to him anymore. His grandmother, her mother, had died one month ago and now his mother was a ghost. It was as if her mind was off, wandering lost somewhere. Vladimir understood that this trip was for her, but that didn’t make it any less painful.
 
To have a break, Vladimir’s father had told him, to get away from the city.
 
But I like the city…
 
You’re fifteen, Vlad. One summer at your grandmother’s old summerhouse won’t kill you. Do it for your mother.
 
Will there be a computer?
 
No.
 
A TV?
 
No.
 
A telephone??
 
Yes, in the town center. Just bring some books. You’ll be fine. With those words Vladimir’s father ended the conversation. He was a big man with a thick beard.
 
Vladimir couldn’t remember a time when there hadn’t been computer games or TV readily available to him. He even had a girlfriend back home. She wore shorter skirts than any other girl and bright red paint on her lips. He sighed, now here he was, in the middle of nowhere. Vladimir’s father was reading last week’s newspaper and his mother was looking out the window. The sky was getting dark. Vladimir stood up and walked out into the blue evening. He turned right and walked to the little store up the road. As he walked into the store the shriveled old woman behind the counter woke with a start. Her lower lip hung down and revealed three, brown teeth.
 
Um, Where are the candies? Asked Vladimir.
 
Candies? Repeated the old woman.
 
You know, can-dies? Vladimir waited, … sweets?
 
Ahh, you want sweet! The old women reached below the counter and pulled out a cup of deep, red, wild strawberries and arranged her drooping lips into a smile.
 
No, no. Vladimir sighed. He left the store and headed toward the old summerhouse. Moon glowed silver off the tired tops of dried-out weeds that grew thick along the edges of the dirt road. Vladimir heard a hushed rustling in the roadside weeds, like whispers in the dark. He stopped dead and spotted a dash of moonlit white before everything was still again and too silent. Vladimir stood frozen on the road. Wide-eyed, he craned his neck to see through the plants. Nothing. Vladimir walked back to the house accompanied by the sound of his own footsteps, distant piano and a chorus of crickets.
 
In the morning Vladimir couldn’t sleep in with the sun blaring through his window and sweat dripping down his face. He groaned irritatedly several times before finally going to the kitchen. His parents weren’t there. The house was so hushed. He looked through the back doorway into their overgrown yard. The early sun lit up floating dust and pollen like speckles of gold drifting idly from the sky. Vladimir watched the sunlit air with sleepy eyes. Far off someone was playing piano again. Then there it was—that mutter of disturbed weeds and a little glimpse of white. The rustling began scurrying away. Vladimir took a few steps after it, but his father’s huge frame appeared in the doorway, his mother close behind. Vladimir pushed past them and stood with one hand on the doorframe, squinting in the sunlight, but the plants were quiet and still. Only bugs hummed and children faintly giggled in the distance.
 
As afternoon approached, Vladimir found himself sitting in the dust in his yard. His clothing was dusty. There were smears of dirt left where he had wiped sweat from his brow. He waved bugs out of his face and grimaced in the sun as he repeatedly hit one stone against another. His mother was picking flowers and his father was reading the paper. Vladimir thought of home. With a start, he noticed his mother was at his side. Vladimir shielded the sunlight from his eyes and looked up at her sullen face. She was holding out her hand and in the palm rested one, tiny, dusty, wild strawberry.
 
Eat it, Vlad. She said, good for the soul. Vladimir took the strawberry with his filthy fingers and put it in his mouth. It was so small that he swallowed it in a second. He didn’t take his eyes off his mother’s.
 
Yum, he said. She smiled vaguely and ambled away. Vladimir looked after her; she is so lost and gone, he thought.
 
Vladimir spent the rest of his day outside thrashing the parched plant stalks with a stick and squashing any helpless bee, beetle, or fly he could find. He waited eagerly for that familiar rustle, and squinted to catch just a peek of that white. But there was nothing. As the sky grew darker and the crickets grew louder, Vladimir abandoned the back yard and joined his parents at the dinner table.
 
That night Vladimir watched dust float through a beam of moonlight from his window, flecks of silver dancing in the air. In the yard the weeds swayed gently in the breeze and the crickets were silent for once. Vladimir looked at the clock on his wall, but it was broken. Lying awake in the hazy night, Vladimir waited for sleep to come. The instant he heard a disturbance in the weeds below his window, he shot out of bed and into the yard. The overrun weeds shook wildly as the cause of the disturbance ran off. Vladimir chased it through increasingly knotted weeds, then through tall reeds growing in marshy earth. He burst through the last of the reeds and stopped sharp. All was still.
 
In front of Vladimir stretched wild grass all the way to the edge of a pond. Moonlight glowed all around him and there was not a house in sight. At the edge of the water stood a very young girl in a white dress. Vladimir couldn’t tell how long they looked each other in the eye. Soon the girl turned away from him and sat down on the soggy pond bank, her feet stretched into the water. Vladimir approached her slowly, silently. As he got closer he saw dirt stains on her dress and dust smears on her arms. Her dark blond hair was badly in need of a wash. He sat down beside her and looked at her eyes. She only stared straight ahead. After time had gone by, Vladimir turned his own face to the glowing expanse before him. Water lapped around his earthy feet. The girl put her hand softly on his dirty knuckles. Everything was still and silent. Vladimir thought of his mother.
 
Interview With the Author, Rachel Sipser:
 
Q: What was the inspiration for this story?
 
A: Well, I wanted to write a story that tackled some of the themes we looked at in my Travel Fictions class this semester, but from a different angle. Since none of the travel stories were from a child’s perspective I thought it would be interesting to examine how some of these very adult themes might apply to someone younger. Also, most of my experiences traveling have been with my parents so writing about a family felt familiar. Another familiar aspect was that of Russian culture: My grandmother grew up in rural Lithuania (in a town called Daugai) and my grandfather grew up in Russia. I spent lots of time with them when I was younger. None of this story is true, but the character of the little girl is based on a little girl I met one night on a playground in Vladimir, Russia two summers ago.
 
Q: What are the themes you feel you “tackled?”
 
A: After reading Sputnik Sweetheart, I was interested in the theme of dealing with trauma. As a result I made Vladimir’s mother, having recently suffered the death of her own mother, somewhat lost in her own world. This also tied in with the broader theme of being lost in general, except I wanted to apply this theme mentally instead of geographically. The main theme in my story is that of going from an urban setting to a rural one. In The Sun Also Rises, Jake’s transition into a pastoral environment purifies him and I wanted the Russian countryside to have a similar effect on Vladimir. It seems in today’s culture, kids are growing up and losing their innocence so quickly. In my story I wanted Vladimir to regain some of his lost innocence (represented by the girl in white). Some other smaller themes were descriptions of places, interaction with locals, miscommunication, and familial love.
 
Q: Is there a message you are trying to send with this story?
 
A: I have always been fascinated by the honest beauty of nature. I feel that this honest beauty also stems from innocence. It saddens me to see children these days enthralled by computer games and television where people are just shooting one another, so I guess I was just trying to say, don’t grow up too fast, or appreciate nature more, or something like that.

Q: Why did you choose to include the details about wild strawberries?

A: I feel that wild strawberries are more natural and and beautiful than the large, processed strawberries that most americans (including myself) buy in super markets. In most small Russian towns, young children and/or old women sell cups of wild strawberries on the streets. When I was in Russia, the group I was traveling with thought I was really weird because I would obsessively buy these little, deformed strawberries wherever we went. They actually taste much sweeter and more earthy than the super-market-straberries I mentioned earlier. In my story, I used the wild strawberries to represent the pastoral countryside as opposed to the superficial/artificial city. 
 
Q: Okay, last question, what did you find to be the greatest challenge in writing this story?
 
A: I definitely had a lot of difficulty telling an effective story (with beginning, middle and end) in around 1,000 words. I have always admired short stories, but writing this story gave me a whole new appreciation of their genius. It was actually a lot of work for me to come up with a way to examine such complex themes in such limited space. I didn’t dislike this challenge however, I felt it quite added to my understanding of the themes I chose to explore.

Throughout Sputnik SweetheartSumire is on the threshold of two worlds. At the beginning of the story she starts in “this” world and by the end of the story she has moved into the “other” world, however for most of the story she is in between both sides, never fully immersed in either one.
 
Sumire’s relationships with Miu and “K” represent the two different sides for her (even though she may not be directly aware of it). As is made clear with Miu’s description of the two worlds, the “other” side is represented by Miu’s “sexual desire” and “perhaps even [her] will to live” (157) whereas “this” side is presumably represented by the opposite. From this one can speculate that Sumire’s completely (from her point of view) un-sexual relationship with “K” would symbolize “this” side and her (again, from her point of view) sexually charged relationship with Miu symbolizes the “other” side. I believe that Sumire’s neutral position between the two worlds is also signified by the fact that she can never finish her stories—she waits for her stories to “transport [her] to some brand-new place” (15) but she can never reach that point because she is stuck in the middle.
 
Although I don’t really understand why Sumire chooses to disappear into the “other” world at the end of the novel, I don’t believe that it is only because of her unrequited sexual desire for Miu. The fact that she can’t finish her novels helps drive her disappearance as well. At the beginning of the story, “K” is the one who tells her “a story is not something of this world” (16). The fact that “K’s” job is a teacher and Sumire so often calls him for advice makes it seem almost as if her is her guide. “K” guides to the other world with words and Miu guides Sumire with (unintended) sexuality. The ending of this novel was very complex and difficult, I think, for anybody to fully understand. This blog post was just an effort on my part to examine what could have led Sumire to leave “this” side.

The dedication page, the very first page of this story (besides the title page) says that this book is “For the man who lost my manuscript in Copenhagen airport, and knows how a woman lost her language.” The story then follows Zhaung as she explores different types of languages across many different aspects of life. She is learning the literal language English, but at the same time she is learning the language of western culture (and/or point of view), of sexuality, and most importantly, of love. The dedication page implies that by the end of the story, Zhaung, loses herlanguage, but which language is hers? And which language (or languages) does she lose?
 
In addition to language(s), time is a major theme in Zhuang’s story. The entire book is structured through time and in the very first chapter Zhuang remarks, “I at neither [Beijing nor London] time zone…When a body floating in air, which country she belong to?” (3) to foreshadow that at the end of the story Zhuang doesn’t feel that she belongs in neither English culture nor Chinese culture. The fact that in this chapter Chinese and English culture are represented by their time zones is also significant. Lots of Zhuang’s trouble adjusting comes from her inability to first grasp the English notion of time, and then later her inability to go back to the Chinese notion of time.
 
In London, her lover is always telling her to “Live in the moment!” (238), but when she returns to china her mother shouts at her, “you never think of the future! You only live in the present!” (281). In Chinese there are no tenses so the very idea of “living in” a specific tense is completely foreign to Zhuang before she travels to England. The fact that in Zhuang can only fully grasp the English present tense demonstrates that she linguistically and generally “[lives] in the present” while she is living in London. When she goes back to Beijing she makes the impulsive decision to move to Beijing, which shows that upon returning to China, she continues to live in the present. By the time she leaves London, Zhuang does have a fairly firm grasp on all English tenses, and this new knowledge causes her to lose her original Chinese notion of time existing as one general concept.
 
Time and diligent studying are what allow Zhuang to learn English. By the end of her diary, she is fluent and only makes occasional grammar and spelling mistakes. Although she is quickly learning the English language (and thereby English Culture) and using it often, she speaks of her own Chinese culture less and less as the story goes on. When she tells her lover about Qi, he is surprised because he has never heard her talk about these types of Chinese beliefs before. In a sense as she learns more British culture, she loses her own culture. She also tells more and more people to call her “Z” instead of her real, Chinese name, Zhuang. This also demonstrates a loss of Chinese customs and her Chinese identity.
 
Strangely, the more English that Zhuang learns, the more difficult it is for her to communicate with her lover. This seems counterintuitive, but makes a complex statement about love. It expresses that love is a spiritual language. It cannot be learned, or taught, but only felt. The more Zhuang tries to understand her lover through reading his diary and letters and speaking to him, the less they get along. This is also represented through the fact that writing emails and letters to each other, does not convey love for Zhuang because this is purely literal, spoken language. At first the mystic language of love comes so easily to Zhuang, but with increasing fluency in English she loses the ability to feel the language of love and I believe that this is the language that the book is referring to on the dedication page.

Both “The Gateway of India” and “The Elephant God” tell the story of a character caught between American culture and Indian culture.  Both Dwight and Alice are faced with some of the same challenges, and their stories reflect how they deal with these challenges. Within India, Dwight’s business job that mostly takes place within the hotel represents his attachment to The United States. His “hideout” in Indru’s apartment shows his attachment to India. In Alice’s case, the Ashram is where she is partly assimilated into Indian culture and Electronics City is where she has to be American and teach English to the Indian employees. Unfortunately, by doing this Alice (who is purposely trying to leave American culture behind) thereby Americanizes the Indians she is teaching.
 
At the beginning of  “The Gateway of India,” Dwight despises India and everything about it. The only part of it that he likes is Shah, his business helper and a Jain. He respects and admires Shah and his sect of Hinduism. Even though Dwight repeatedly goes back to Indru’s house and at first says he is “happy” there and feels as if “[he is] home” (127), he realizes that something is not quite right there. Indru and Padmini help Dwight discover his sexuality but only for a cost. Dwight calls himself their “benefactor” but the ominous thunder in his head in and in the background enforce that he is lying to himself. Soon Dwight grows sick of Indru and her endless, pitiful stories of rape and abuse. In the final stage of the story, he decides to leave behind everything that ties him to America and become a true Jain. Dwight strips himself of his American clothing, his valuables and even Shah, who has been Americanized by the end of the story. He is left alone and finally sees happiness in a long term which wasn’t at all planned, “seeing things as they were.” (186)
 
In “The elephant God” Alice wantsto make a similar commitment to India, but she isn’t able to strip herself of her American-ness the way Dwight does. Like Dwight understands that something isn’t right about his position at Indru’s apartment, Alice sees that something is off at the Ashram (even though she likes it there). At the ashram, she spends most of her time with two Indian women who represent the wealthy portion of India, which is not what most of India is like. At first, her job at Electronics City, makes Alice feel fulfilled and proud, but soon she comes to resent the fact that her polite, respectful Indian students soon become rude imitations of Americans through her teaching of English. The only place that Alice is really happy is when she is with the chained elephant. The elephant is physically in middle of Alice’s two positions and represents the fact that Alice also feels trapped by her American-ness.  Towards the end of the story Alice tries to have a similar transformation to Dwight, but is unable to because the, now westernized, Amitabh (a symbol of American Culture) follows her wherever she goes. Amitah and his wester-ness destroy Alice’s mission for self-discovery. Alice is only able to truly be free when she frees the chained elephant (a manifestation of herself) which tramples Amitabh. Then Alice sets out without her belongings, praying to Ganesha, alone.

I found this book to be extremely disturbing for several reasons. The ending of course was extremely gruesome and frightening and almost led me to put down the book and refuse to finish it. The very fact that I couldn’t put the book down even though it frightened me bothered me as well. I was also strongly bothered by the book because I was in Venice just this past summer. What troubled me the most about this book, however was that Mary and Colin continued to return to Robert and Caroline’s house despite all the warnings that Robert and Caroline were up to something. This question hung in the air throughout my reading of the book and I still can’t quite understand what led Mary and Colin to trust the creepy Venetian couple.
 
Mary and Colin’s very first encounter with Robert (on the street at night) is already slightly ominous and foreshadows the rest of their “friendship.” The way Robert grips both of their wrists would have caused me to turn and run, but for some reason Mary and Colin don’t question this action too heavily. This “grip” runs as a motif throughout the rest of the novella and comes to symbolize that Mary and Colin are, in a way trapped. Although I understand this concept, I still don’t get why they were trapped! It seems almost as if they go to their doom willingly…
 
The only motive I see as maybe having caused Colin and Mary to return to Caroline and Robert’s house is that somehow the couples’ interactions repaired Colin and Mary’s stale relationship. It comes across that maybe some of Robert and Caroline’s overly intense and destructive sexuality gets in a sense transferred to Mary and Colin whose sexuality (after 7 years) has become complete without passion or real desire. After spending time with Robert and Caroline, Mary and Colin stay closed up in their hotel room having the best sex they’ve had in a long time. This further repairs their emotional connection as well. Maybe this newfound connection entices them and causes them to delve deeper into their relationship with Robert and Caroline, but I still don’t understand how Mary and Colin can be so blind to such obvious ominous hints such as Caroline’s plea for help, Robert’s punch in the stomach or the snooping photograph of Colin that Mary sees. When Caroline drugs Mary at the climax of the novel, my first thought was that it seemed as if in a way Mary had been drugged the entire story (maybe this is implied with the repeated use of Marijuana?).
 
The questions I’m asking in this post are actually real queries that intrigue me, not discussion questions. I would really appreciate if anyone who has any opinions on the matter would comment!  

Similar to Port’s story in The Sheltering Sky,Aschenbach’s story in Death in Venice,represents a relentless pursuit of passion. Port is passionate about death and darkness and his search for understanding of these two parts of his life eventually leads to his death. Comparably, Aschenbach is passionate about art, but has spent his entire life suppressing this passion to retain his dignity.  This “reflection of his origins in the strict milieu of North Germany” (Christopher Smith) is quickly turned on its head when Aschenbach travels into lively, easygoing Italy.  
 
Because Aschenbach was brought up to stifle the true fervor and beauty in writing, his inspiration was a matter of force. As a result, when he travels to Venice and sees the real-life representation of aesthetic beauty, Tadzio, he is unable to repress his feelings any longer. The fact that Aschenbach long repressed passion will get the better of him is shown through the many symbolisms of death such as the coffin- like gondola that ferries him to Lido (then disappears) and especially the gondola-driver’s ominous words, “You will pay” (Mann, 40).
 
Once Aschenbach experiences a true taste of beauty and ardor through the apparition, Tadzio, He is unable to go back to the strict, regulated life he led before. Even when the quick development of the disease strongly foreshadows the fact that Aschenbach is getting too involved in his passion, he is unable to leave. He instead goes to the barber and gets a complete make-over. This represents the fact that Aschenbach’s body has internally and externally been taken over by the beauty of art. The way the Barber works on Aschenbach is suggestive of the way in which a painter works on a painting, thus literally turning Aschenbach himself into a work of art.  His new-found zeal for art and love for Tadzio (the physical representation of art) get the better of him and in the end, cause his death. 

According to Pico Iyer, we travel “to find ourselves” and “in search of both self and anonymity.” At the beginning of each of their stories, Sal, Jake and Kit are unsatisfied with their lives. They are each seeking something or running away from their troubles. Often they don’t even know what they are hunting for or fleeing from. Each character’s search seems relatively hopeless until they have an experience in nature. After each such experience, the characters seem changed. They all become more grounded. Sal, Jake and Kit all find anonymity in nature and undergo a change. They finally learn to see the meaning in their lives and appreciate the relationships they have for what they are.
 
In Kerouac’s, On the Road, Sal and Dean are always looking for “IT” (Kerouac, 195), they find it in several places, but never within themselves. At the movie theater in Detroit, Sal begins to explain his lack of identity and fulfillment by saying “they almost [sweep] [him] away” (Kerouac, 233) with the trash on the floor. As the story progresses, Sal and Dean feel more and more pressure to be on the move to avoid aging. Just outside Gregoria, Mexico, Dean, Sal and Stan stop to sleep in the thick Mexican jungle. Everybody tosses and turns in the heat and humidity, but Sal has a spiritual experience in the jungle that night.
 
Sal decides to sleep on top of the car “with [his] face exposed to the heavens” (Kerouac, 281). He describes that “for the first time in [his] life the weather [is] not something that touch[es] [him], that caress[es] [him], [freezes] or sweat[s] him, but [becomes] [him]. The atmosphere and [him] [become] the same” (Kerouac, 281). Sal seems to be feeling something intensely mystic even though what he is going through sounds extremely unpleasant. He is covered in “dead bugs mingled with [his] blood” (Kerouac, 281) and he smells the “rank, hot and rotten jungle” (Kerouac, 281). But Sal still gets sucked into it without resisting. He finds beauty in the jungle even though it seems disgusting. He understands and absorbs the jungle just as much as it absorbs him.
 
Sal sweats and bleeds all night and it seems as if he is expelling the sense of meaninglessness out of his body. This experience marks a turning point in Sal’s life. After he sleeps in the jungle, Sal’s trip, and even life, seem to become deeper and more serious. He no longer goes chasing after girls and even when he does meet some girls accidentally, the meeting is almost religious instead of sexual. In the jungle Sal also sees “a wild horse, white as a ghost” (Kerouac, 282). It subconsciously reminds him that he can’t escape aging. Instead of fighting back like he does when Dean talks about his age, Sal understands and accepts this fact. It makes him more mature. Dean doesn’t have an experience like this which is why he leaves Sal (the only person to really understand and care about Dean) to run back to his many superficial marriages in the States. Sal’s new understanding of life is also what leads him to finally admit that Dean is a “rat” (Kerouac, 288). In Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Jake too learns to see one of his relationships for what it really is.
 
Jake has an experience of nature and reawakening when he visits San Sebastian. For the fist time in the story, Jake is not surrounded by his shallow friends. He heads down Concha, the beach, alone.  This part of the book turns completely to description because Jake has no one to talk to, and the description is detailed and slow. Sense of time is lost. In Jake’s first swim, “the tide [is] about half way out” (Hemingway, 238), the second time Jake goes swimming is what really reforms him.
 
Jake wakes up the next day and states that “everything [is] fresh…in the early morning” (Hemingway, 241). This already shows that he is becoming new. He goes down to the beach and this time “the tide is in” (Hemingway, 240). There is no mention of other people around. Hemingway says that Jake undresses, but leaves out any mention of Jake putting on swim-suit. This demonstrates Jake shedding his old identity. Like Sal lying face-up on top of the car, Jake turns on his back and floats in the water to symbolize the fact that he is opening himself up to Mother Nature.  Jake swims leisurely and says “it [seems] like a long swim” (Hemingway, 241)—once again, he loses his sense of time. Later Jake repeats that he is swimming “slowly and steadily” (Hemingway, 242).
 
After returning to the hotel, Jake receives Brett’s telegraph asking him to come get her. Jake allows Brett’s plea to bring back to his old life, but he approaches it in a new way. For the first time, Jake admits his disapproval of her behavior. He says sarcastically, “That was it. Send a girl off with one man. Introduce her to another…go and bring her back. And sign the wire with love. That was it alright” (Hemingway, 243). By repeating, “That was it,” Jake conveys his frustration, and also implies that he is done with Brett’s frivolous games. In the last few lines of the novel, Brett says to Jake, “we could have had such a damned good time together” (Hemingway, 251). Whereas earlier Jake was the one begging Brett to live with him, now he simply replies, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” (Hemingway, 251). Jake has found meaning in his life without Brett and is satisfied with their relationship the way it is. In contrast to Sal and Jake, Kit manages to find fulfillment without any relationships at all.
 
Throughout the first half of The Sheltering Sky, Kit is displayed as overly neurotic and generally unhappy with her life but she continues to run away from these problems by following omens instead of her own decisions. When she talks with Port during their bike ride, Port describes his preference for warm countries. Kit says that “[She’s] not sure [she] doesn’t feel it’s wrong to try to escape the night and winter” (Bowles, 92). In other words, she understands that one must eventually face their problems but for now she continues to run away from them with Port. Port also accurately explains that “[He and Kit have] never managed…to get all the way into life” (Bowles, 94). Kit’s guilt about her night with Tunner also forces her to evade her troubles. Tunner states that not “a drop of rain has fallen since that night” (Bowles, 228) to symbolize Kit’s impurity. This all changes after Kit’s experience in nature.
 
After Port dies, Kit sets out alone through Sbâ. She expresses a need to “have water all around her” (Bowles, 240) because she wants to transform and become pure. For the first time she knows what she is looking for. Suddenly she sees a “wide break in the wall into a garden” (Bowles, 240). The garden has a pool in it. The broken wall represents an opening into her self that has been blocked off until now. She goes into the garden and like Jake, sheds her clothing and her old identity. She realizes that “Whenever [she’s] about to be happy [she] hang[s] on instead of letting go” (Bowles, 240). Finally, Kit lets go. She gets into the pool and “wade[s] slowly toward the center” (Bowles, 241). In the heart of the pool, “the water [comes] to her waist” (Bowles, 241)—the middle of the pool meets the middle of Kit’s body to symbolize that she is getting “all the way into life” (Bowles, 94). Kit also symbolically sleeps on the ground with her face to the sky, like Sal and Jake exposing herself to the sky and nature. After leaving the garden, “the alley [grows] wide” and the “wall [recedes]” in front of her to show that her self is opening up.
 
Kit even feels her own transformation. She says, “Life was suddenly there, she was in it” and that “[she] shall never be hysterical again” (Bowles, 241). When she gets out of the pool, “life [does] not recede from her” (Bowles, 241). Just like Sal and Jake, Kit has lost a sense of time and feels as if she has been bathing for hours. Her watch has even disappeared to make the loss of time all the more apparent. Kit has recaptured “the joy of being” (Bowles, 242) and it follows her throughout the rest of the novel. At the very end of the story, it even causes Kit to choose the carefree life in Oran instead of going home to New York. 
 
Although each of their experiences is different, Sal, Jake and Kit all self-reflect and find satisfaction in their lifes. They go back into their journeys with a new insight that helps them face their troubles and accept where their expeditions are taking them.

After leaving Gregoria, Mexico, Dean, Sal and Stan drive deep into the night without thinking of any place to stop and sleep. Soon they find themselves in the thick Mexican jungle. Dean quickly decides that they are going to sleep there that night. Everybody tosses and turns in the heat and humidity, but Sal is the only one who has a spiritual experience in the jungle that night.
 
After Sal tries to sleep in several positions in the car, he finally decides to sleep on top of it instead. After he climbs onto the roof, he describes: “for the first time in my life the weather was not something that touched me, that caressed me, froze or sweated me, but became me. The atmosphere and I became the same.” (281) Sal seems to be feeling something intensely mystic even though what he is going through sounds extremely unpleasant. He is covered in “dead bugs mingled with [his] blood” (281) and he smells the “rank, hot and rotten jungle” (281). But Sal still gets sucked into it. He doesn’t resist. He gives in to the atmosphere even though it seems disgusting. He finds a beauty in it. Sal says that he feels like he could “lie there all night long with [his] face exposed to the heavens” (281) making the experience holy.  He understands and absorbs the jungle just as much as it absorbs him.
 
This scene represents a common “going back to nature” and cleansing moment in literature. Sal sweats and bleeds and it seems as if he is expelling some bad feeling out of hid body. This event also fits into the broader context of the story. Sal says in the first paragraph of the novel that this book is going to describe his “life on the road” (1). This, however, is the first time that him and Dean actually sleep on the road. The fact that this experience is so meaningful and sacred to Sal marks a turning point in his life. After he sleeps in the jungle, Sal’s trip, and even life, seem to have become deeper and more serious. He no longer goes chasing after girls and even when he meets some accidentally, he turns the meeting into a religious experience rather than a sexual one. His night in the Jungle changes him. He sees the white horse which subconsciously reminds him of the fact that he is aging. Instead of fighting back like he does when Dean talks about his age, Sal understands and accepts this fact. It makes him more mature. Dean doesn’t have an experience like this which is why he leaves Sal (the only person to really understand and care about Dean) to run back to his many superficial marriages in the States. Sal’s new understanding of life is also what leads him to finally admit that Dean is a “rat” (288).

The very first line of On the Road bands Sal and Dean together. Throughout the story both characters attempt to find places that will make them happy. Sal often doesn’t fit in through his thought and Dean doesn’t fit in through his actions. The only place where both characters seem to be content is on the road.
 
Dean is frequently described as a maniac. His actions surprise and confuse most people so he gets written off as crazy. People find it hard to get along with him. Sal, on the other hand is much quieter than Dean and often takes the role of observer. He begins the book in search or his beautiful idea of “The West.” Every time he reaches a place that is westward of New York he thinks that his dream is going to come to life, but he is only disappointed. Even when he reaches San Francisco, as far west as he can go, he doesn’t find what he is looking for and remains depressed. All these disappointments force Sal and Dean to feel they must move on to a new place. They don’t realize that they are happiest when they are actually in the process of moving from one place to another.
 
Ultimately this causes Dean and Sal to become a pair. They yearn to move together. Sal and Dean’s constant movement allows them to only be judged briefly. When the two of the (and Marylou) are in the car naked, truck drivers only have time to give them strange looks but the pair don’t have to suffer the consequences of doing something socially unacceptable by society.
 
It is fairly well knows that the story and characters of On the Road are based on travels and people from Jack Kerouac’s own life (On the Road Again). I believe that much of the first half (at least) of  this novel aims to explain the effort of young adults to “find themselves.” Almost all human beings go through a period of “not fitting in” and Kerouac is trying to give this feeling a universal story. 

There is no one way to characterize Port and Kit nor their travels through Africa. Both protagonists are very different from each other and represent several very different aspects that were discussed in Eric Cohen’s essay, “A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences.” To add an even higher level of complexity to the analysis of Port and Kit’s journey, readers of The Sheltering Skymuch apply their ownpersonal meaning to Port and Kit’s trip. Port and Kit’s individual passages both end ambiguously, so a large aspect of the novel is for readers to determine for themselves whether or not Port and Kit found what they were searching for in the end.
 
Much of Cohen’s essay speaks of travel in a religious sense. He begins with the “mythological imagery” (Cohen, 182) of primitive societies and goes on to discuss the pilgrimages of modern-day Zionists. I believe that the religious aspect has almost nothing to do with Port and Kit’s journey. They are searching for a “centre” (Cohen,) of a different kind.
 
I believe that Port mostly fits into the “Experiential Mode” (Cohen, 186) and partly into the “Experimental mode”of tourism. He lives in a “centre-less space” (Cohen, 186) because he travels so much. The beginning of The Sheltering Sky describes how port really has no home. He is the “drifter” according to Cohen who “observes the authentic life of others” but always “remains aware of their ‘otherness’.”(Cohen, 188) His increasing understanding of his “state of alienation” (Cohen, 186) is partly what motivates him to continue traveling deeper into the Sarah (and simultaneously deeper into his own mind). Cohen describes that the “experiential tourist…perhaps inarticulately, searches for a new meaning.” (Cohen, 187) In the very first chapter of The Sheltering Sky Port awakens with “the certitude of an infinite sadness at the core of his consciousness.” (Bowles, 3) Throughout the rest of the trip Port searches for this meaning within the literal desert and within the desert of his mind. He seems to think that his relationship with Kit holds meaning although it is not enough to save him from falling into the abyss. The fact that Port invited Tunner in this journey exemplifies the very fact that Port’s search is “inarticulate” because he wants to get closer to Kit but he, himself, puts a huge obstacle in his own way.
 
Kit, on the other hand, makes a passage through many of the different modes of tourism. She begins the Africa trip in the “Recreational mode.”(Cohen, 183) (for fun) but still looks down on other tourists and European-like qualities she sees in Oran. This moves her into the “Diversionary mode”(Cohen 185) of travel. Her meaningless life is exemplified when she is sitting in a café in Oran with Tunner and Port and discussing real versus fake Pernod. Her “center-less[ness]” is shown through the fact that she doesn’t really want to be in Africa, but she agreed to the trip because Port wanted to go. In a sense, Port is her centre. When Port dies she moves into the “Experiential mode”and becomes completely aware of the fact that she has no centre at all. This sends her into her own journey of self-discovery.  She “[tries] to break the bonds…and begin to ‘live’” (Cohen, 187). Finally Kit becomes the “experimental tourist…in search of [her]self.” (Cohen, 189) She is not sure what she is looking for so “the search itself [becomes] a way of life.” (Cohen, 189) Her ultimate goal is to get lost in the Casbah and assimilate into African life.   

The first part of Port and Kit’s journey takes them through three cities in Norhern Algeria. They travel from Oran to Boussif to Aïn Krorfa. This expedition also brings them farther and farther into the Sahara Desert, further away from civilization and deeper into their relationship. This trip forces them to analyze themselves and their feelings about each other and also exposes their fundamental problems.
 
The first ten Chapters in Oran and on the train to Boussif reveal the poor nature of Port and Kit’s Marriage. They sleep in separate bedrooms in the hotel. They spend little time alone together. The only hints of any love in their relationship are fleeting moments when they seem to have some physical/flirtatious connection: “’All right baby,’ he said submissively, kissing her on the shoulder.” (13) The main events that show the disconnect in their relationship, however, are Port and Kit’s infidelities to each other.
 
As they travel deeper into their itinerary it becomes clear what led both characters to cheat on each other. In their respective ways Port and Kit both feel trapped in their relationship. They never have sex so Port goes outside of the marriage to find a sexual release. His two encounters with prostitutes demonstrate what he is lacking in his own marriage. His first disloyalty with Marhnia, who is a brave, independent woman, shows that he thinks he wants independence in a woman but this actually sends him fleeing and hiding in fear. His next (attempt) at adultery indicates what he really wants in his relationship but can’t have. He tries to sleep with the blind dancer in Aïn Krorfa, but she disappears before he can even speak to her. After she slips away, Port imagines “the countless ways he could have made her grateful to him” (134) and reveals his need for appreciation and dependence. As Kit is about to sleep with Tunner she admits that “she [is] aware only of the softness of the woolen bathrobe next to her skin, and then of the nearness and warmth of a being that did not frighten her.” (80) This signifies that Kit is intimidated by Port.
 
The first time readers see Port and Kit truly alone together is when they go for a bike ride. This time they spend in each others company explains why Port and Kit can never really love each other. Kit knows that Port wants her to be more like him and this thought is what frightens her. She is willing to “become whatever he [Port] wanted her to become” (93) but can’t make such a significant change because Port scares he so becoming like him scares her as well. Port is “aware that the very silences and emptinesses that [touch] his soul [terrify] her” (93) even though he does not want to admit it. In this sense he has built a “cage” (93) around himself, which Kit is too weak and too afraid to break down. 

Living in a foreign country always seemed so enchanting to me. I like to dream about getting accustomed to new and unfamiliar culture and learning a different language. But Hemingway managed to dash my dream and make everything about life in a different country appear so dull and superficial!
 
Hemingway’s writing style is the first thing that signifies the monotonousness of his characters lives. His detailed, matter-of-fact way of writing is the first clue that there is no real substance in the lifestyle of these people. Hemingway describes in great detail as characters hop from one café to another even though their experience at each café seems the same. He also takes great care to devote paragraphs of description to time the characters spend driving through the streets of Paris. These long narrations of the view from taxi windows also gives the feeling of life just tediously passing by. Hemingway repeats words such as “wonderful” (76) to portray the fact that the Americans try to mask the fact that their lives are so boring but the very fact that they cant find a different word besides “wonderful” to describe their travels in itself conveys dullness.
 
Another aspect of the story that expresses tediousness is how much Jake and his friends drink. They can't do anything without brining some form of alcohol with them. Every meal or get together includes drinks. It is a huge part of their social life. One of the biggest drinkers is Brett.
 
Brett herself becomes a symbol of superficiality. She runs from man to man waiting until she gets bored of one and then moving on to another. Many of the men she meets are so under her charm that they don’t realize how much she is using them. One of the main examples of this is the narrator, Jake. She claims to love him yet refuses to be with him (even to live with him) because Jake is unable to have sex.
 
The only character that expresses any interest in breaking out of this mundane lifestyle is Robert Cohn. He says that he feels like “life is going by and [he’s] not taking advantage of it.” (19) The rest of the characters call him stupid and Jake “[feels] sorry for him.” (18) Robert Cohn however, is the only character that fits into the Iyer’s Travel essay, whereas all the other characters seem to have stepped right out of Huxley’s.  

Henry James’ Daisy Miller takes place in two fascinating cities—Vevey and Rome. As I was reading the book I kept expecting to read detailed descriptions of Italy’s lively lifestyle or beautiful culture. However as the story progresses all the narrator and characters seem to be interested in is the activities of other Americans. Gossip seems to be the most entertaining activity the American women can find while they are abroad. Even Winterbourne who has spent so much time in Europe, becomes overly concerned with Daisy. Daisy is the only character who actually goes out and explores what Italy has to offer.
 
The theme of interest in people’s activities as opposed to the setting is set first and foremost by the narrator of the story. The narrator him/herself repeatedly describes American tourists’ affairs instead of describing beautiful places like “the Chateau de Chillon” (19) or “the Pincio” (37). Readers automatically become sucked into the lives of the Americans and forget that the story takes place in another country. I only realized how little the book was actually about Rome when I was almost three quarters of the way through. This is why I believe that it is necessary to, for at least some time, experience a foreign country without any familiar company. People that believe in the same customs as you and/or speak the same language as you only serve as distractions from the place you are visiting.
 
Other characters also help lend a superficial air to the story. When Mrs. Costello is in Vevey she stays “shut up in her room” because she “almost always [has] a headache” (4) and in Rome she gets together with “a dozen of the American colonists.” (54) When she is with her American friends all they do is gossip about Daisy. Mrs. Walker “[makes] a point…of studying European society” (47) but never of actually joining it. Her few Italian acquaintances serve as “text-books” (47) instead of real friends. Even Mr. Winterbourne, who seems like a respectable character, gets involved in the rumors about Daisy. He is continuously trying to figure out whether or not she is “a nice girl” (41) and/or “innocent.” (42) Only at the end of the story does Mr. Winterbourne “[feel] angry with himself that he [has] bothered so much about the right way of regarding Miss Daisy Miller.” (60)
 
Although Daisy is endlessly criticized by the other characters she is the only one that that actually experiences Rome. She meets real Italians (not “text-books”), goes for walks on the Pincio and sees the Coliseum by moonlight. She explores what Italy is really about. Mrs. Costello complains that “the girl [Daisy] goes about alone with her foreigners,” (32) but this seems like what one is meant to do when they are abroad. Characters like Mrs. Walker and Mr. Winterbourne try to tell Daisy that “she must go by the custom of a place [Rome],” (50) but how do they know what the “custom” is if they never experience the true culture for themselves?
 
It is unfortunate that in such a beautiful city as Rome, an American girl’s flirtatiousness is what grabs everyone’s attention. George Monteiro’s article, “American Literary Realism,” describes that Daisy’s personality “prompted controversy” even in 1879 America when the book was published. Early readers themselves fell into the trap of questioning Daisy, instead of questioning what Rome had to offer.
 
At first I couldn’t understand why Henry James chose to make the book so much about Daisy and how people's attitude toward her. After reading Monteiro’s article however, I understood that James’ novel made an interesting commentary on society which then proved to be true when readers became so concerned with Daisy. Readers themselves proved society’s obsession with gossip and rumors instead of setting and culture.  

For a week during the summer of 2008 my family and I traveled to Cappadocia, Turkey. On our third day my parents signed us up to go on a hot-air-balloon ride over the sandy terrain. As was to be expected, the balloon ride was incredible. We arrived at a relatively flat, grassy area at four o’clock in the morning. The weather was crisp and my brother and I still had sleep in our eyes. From the air we watched the sun rise over the crooked, sand formations below us. As beautiful as this experience was however, what really stuck in my mind was what happened right after we landed.

The balloon basket bumped the ground several times before it came to a complete stop. My family climbed out along with the six other tourists that had been on the ride with us. They were from all over the world. The ten of us stood in a field in the early morning sunlight and discussed what we had just experienced.

Suddenly Mustafa, our pilot clapped his hands twice and shouted, “time to pack up the balloon!” The other tourists and I made nervous eye contact. Mustafa showed each of us where to stand and showed each of us how to roll the balloon together. We were all confused now because it was getting hot, the balloon was heavy and we didn’t understand why we were being forced to do hard work along with the crew. But as we continued to work together, we realized that the work we were doing now was just as much a part of this experience as the balloon ride itself had been. We took off our sweaters and rolled up our jeans. I put up my hair as did the other girls that had been in the balloon with me. We laughed as we worked and brushed the dust off of each other’s clothes. We all became sweatier and dirtier until we almost fit in with the Turkish crew.

After the balloon had been all rolled up and packed loosely into its bag, Mustafa showed us how to pick up the bag and push the balloon in tighter. Suddenly I felt one of the Turkish crewmembers pick me up. Before I could even ask what he was doing or protest, he threw me into the bag on top of the balloon. Two other unsuspecting girls were thrown into the bag as well. The crewmembers laughed and suddenly everybody else was laughing too. The crewmembers were using me and the two other girls as weights to stuff the balloon into its case.

Long after I climbed out of that bag and eventually went home to Boston, I continued to think back on this memory. I will never forget the way that something so odd suddenly became so fun. The togetherness I felt while packing away that hot air balloon remains with me to this day.