4. The Sheltering Sky

John W. Aldridge, in his essay “Paul Bowles: The Cancelled Sky”, talks about The Sheltering Sky as a “book-length metaphor of the modern world, particularly of the new postwar world” where morality is “grey” and destined to become “greyer”. When reading the book, I noticed right away the similarities between Bowles’s characters and those of writers after the First World War, mainly the isolation of the characters from each other.
One example of the post-war isolation mentioned by Aldridridge is when Port, Kit, and Tunner are eating lunch and talking about politics at the beginning of chapter 12. Port says, “Europe has destroyed the whole world,. Should I be thankful to it and sorry for it? I hope the whole place gets wiped off the map,” and although he says it in order to try to cut the conversation off so he can talk to Kit alone, his sentiment is clear. After Kit objects to his outburst, Port reveals his true isolation from others, saying, “Humanity? What is that? Who is humanity? I’ll tell you. Humanity is everyone but one’s self. So of what interest can it possibly be to anybody?”
When Tunner objects to this statement, Kit agrees with him, which is interesting because as the novel develops she seems increasingly torn between Tunner and Port, which is interesting becuase she had previously showed a “vague distaste” for Tunner and seemed earlier on the train to not at all be interested in his philosophy.
The lunchtime scene is not the first glimpse we get into Ports idea of the “hopelessly isolated self”, earlier incidents in the novel, like when Port walks into Kit’s room to find Tunner there, highlight the general distrust that he harbors towards people, even the ones with whom he is closest to. Port also shows his isolation though the way that he constantly crosses others and manipulates people.
 A good example of Port’s manipulative tendencies is when he arranges for Tunner to go to Messad with Lyles with the intention of abandoning him even though he promises to meet up with him at a later point. Part of the reason is because Port is paranoid about Tunner and Kit, which in actuality seems to make Kit more interested in Tunner and leads to a morally ambiguous personal crisis when Kit can’t decide whether or not to leave Tunner, which she eventually tries to decide using supernatural logic and "omens" instead of morality.

Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises was set about 25 years prior to Paul Bowles novel, The Sheltering Sky, and I must say that I strongly prefer reading post WWII literature to post WWI. Maybe my preference is just a matter of different authors, and has little to do with the era and more to do with writing style, but either way, I found the characters in Sheltering Sky to be much relatable than those in Sun Also Rises. Bowles describes social conflicts between Kit, Tunner, and Prior matter-of-factly, and doesn’t use old-English to sugarcoat taboo affairs. Because of this, I felt like I could throw myself into the novel, and really get inside the minds of these travelers.
 
The two main conflicts in the novel are both about progression. The first, deals with the progression of relationships, namely the failing marriage between Port and Kit, but also the tryst occurring between Tunner and Kit, and Port’s indulgence with prostitutes. The second conflict with progression involves the westernization of post-war Africa and it’s evolution into a more “tourist-y” place.
 
Port has his own idea of what a “traveler” is, and he feels he embodies the concept not just within his voyages, but in his life as well:  “Port had never lived a life of any kind of regularity. They both had made the fatal error of coming hazily to regard time as nonexistent. One year was like another year. Eventually everything would happen” (127) Port begins to describe the idea of time, and how travelers disregard this as tool; they don’t need set schedules, and they don’t have any obligations forcing them to come home. Their purpose in life is to belong “no more to one place than to the next” (6)
 
The beginning of the novel doesn’t waste any time giving us proper definitions of what a true traveler is, and what a tourist attempts to be.  We learn quickly how important it is for Port to not be classified as the latter, for tourists constantly compare their travels to their homeland, disregarding any aspect of their journey that’s not up to par with the comforts of the familiar.
 
Port’s initial instinct going into Africa was that it would be completely stripped of anything authentic, and modernized from the ground up: “It was merely that the institution of tourist travel in this part of the world never well developed in nay case, had been, not interrupted, but utterly destroyed by the war.” (101) The streets would be teeming with non-Arabs and western folk in search of existentialism. In some cases within his journey, this was true: hotel food was anything but authentic local cuisine, certainly nothing like what native people were cooking in their homes, but on other occasions, Port found himself surprised at how little the country had changed.  
 
When Smaïl takes Port into a café, Port is astonished at the lack of diversity. He didn’t realize “there was anything like this left in the city…with nothing but Arabs…. [he] thought the war had changed everything.” I found this to be an interesting point. If you stop looking for authenticity, you begin to decipher what’s real and what’s bullshit. In my quest to become a true New Yorker, I found that if I stopped trying so hard and started living my life without this “goal” in mind, I gradually started discovery interesting venues and restaurants, eventually getting a taste for the city.

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. 

We have discussed how travel offers a great deal of freedom and an opportunity for escape, and how people travel in order to yield these exact benefits.  However, there is a clear flipside to these benefits and that is trust.  Travel and trust have a very inverse relationship it seems.  Time abroad, especially in the novels we have read, is linked to letting go and truly enjoying freedom, and usually this is explored through emotional or physical infidelity.
 
In all of the novels we have read, going abroad always seems to imply that it is time to be unfaithful.  In Daisy Miller, Winterbourne leaves a mistress back home to pursue Daisy.  In the Sun Also Rises, Cohn, who has a fiancé back in Paris, travels to pursue Brett.  The men, during their travels, are devoted obsessively to these new women, and certainly go abroad with the hope of advancing their relationships. 
 
Now we get to The Sheltering Sky, where infidelity is immediately showcased.  Although the main character Port, who is married to Kit, did not follow a women abroad (a potential step up from the characters in the other novels) he certainly is not faithful to his wife.  This is obvious when a walk through the outskirts of the city quickly turns into a visit to a “dancer.”  During this long walk (to the dancer), Port thinks about his wife Kit: “a faint vision began to haunt his mind… It was Kit, seated by and open window, filling her nails, and looking out over the town” (16).  Throughout the walk, Port continues to have flashbacks of Kit and how she is watching him, how she and Tunner may be having an affair, and how much of a hassle Kit can be (we are later exposed to the difficult, and dramatically emotional life Kit leads).  By the time Port finally arrives at the “dancer” it is clear that Port and what he is about to do is to escape Kit and her ‘baggage.’  Port then promptly cheats on Kit with the dancer (Marhnia). 
 
In this way time abroad is linked to infidelity.  Time abroad seems like the perfect time to act on one’s desires.  As exemplified in Port’s walk, this may be because while traveling one can escape a partner (and the ‘baggage’ that comes with relationships) and become ‘single’ again, potentially appealing opportunity.  No matter the motives, time spent traveling seems to be the perfect opportunity to be unfaithful.  This is why during travel it is almost expected to hear lines such as the one Tunner says to Kit: “He ordered champagne.  ‘At a thousand francs a bottle!’ she remonstrated. ‘Port would have a fit!’ ‘Port isn’t here’ Tunner said” (60).
 
It is probably unfair to completely marry travel with infidelity.  However, traveling is a time for escape, a time to live large and free, and a time to pursue desires.  People certainly can attain all of these benefits without being unfaithful, but this has not been the case for the characters we have seen travel.  It is important to note that these characters all seem to be from a high economic and social class.  I bring this up because; the infidelity may be linked to this higher societal position, rather than to the traveling (we would probably expect some of these characters to have affairs back home).   However, something about travel seems to bring out the infidelity in all types of people: it is why people leave weddings rings at home when they travel for business, and why spouses call to monitor trips.  The travel industry even exploits this idea that romance, or at least sex, is waiting for anyone if they travel abroad (posters showcase the beauty and the romantic eagerness of women to advertise different countries).  Therefore, in these ways, travel is certainly tied with infidelity.

The main aspect of the novel that caught my eye was the distinction between different social classes and different religions and races.
 
Mrs. Lyle warns Port of the Arabs for she believes them to be thieves and claims they spy around for the government. After Port speaks of the Arabs as sympathetic, Lyle counters in saying “They flatter you and fawn on you. And the moment your back is turned, off they rush to the consulate” (pg. 63). She continues to speak negatively of other races, including the Jews of Spain, and how when she visited there, she laughed in their faces because they claimed to be Catholic and that their temple hadn’t been used for centuries. Kit immersed herself into another cultural and social area when she boarded the 4th class car on the train heading for Boussif. As she stepped into the new compartment, she was overwhelmed with the crowded and loud atmosphere.
 
I enjoyed reading all about the different areas and everyone’s opinions on them. Bowles did an exceptional job describing the scene encompassing the plot as well as helping the reader get into the minds of the characters. I felt like I could see what was going on.  It was also interesting to imagine what it is like in the places the characters go to, like the many taverns, the Turkish fortress, and the rooftop restaurant where Mrs. Lyles, Eric and Port have breakfast in Boussif.
 
In addition to being exposed to so many cultures and beliefs, there was one other element that stood out to me in the novel, and that was the attitude of Mrs. Lyle. As already seen, she wasn’t the most welcoming of all people, in fact she was rather discriminatory. On top of all that, she defines exactly what Huxley described as the typical tourist. Characteristics fitting the mold of Huxley’s tourist include travel as a means to brag later about one’s journey and to show social status. Not wanting to do anything but lounge in the hotel, she says “I believe there’s nothing at all to see in Boussif, so we shall be spared going into the streets” (pg. 68).
 
Overall, it’s been a strong start to an interesting travel story.

Port and Kit are just as much part of a Lost Generation as Jake and his gang were.  Except Port and Kit seem even more on their own than The Sun Also Rises' characters.  And they are also braver.  They are really getting out of their comfort zones with the places they travel to and I find that admirable.  The sad thing is: "...they both had made the fatal error of coming hazily to regard time as non-existent...Eventually everything would happen," (p. 127).  Port and Kit are so stagnant, moving through Africa in a constant dance of trying to read or decode each other.  

Port justifies and elaborates on his statement from the beginning of the novel that: "He did not think of himself as a tourist; he was a traveler," (p. 6) when he is en route to Ain Krorfa: "...it made him feel that he was pioneering--he felt more closely identified with his great-grandparents, when he was rolling along out here in the desert than he did sitting at home looking out over the resevoir in Central Park..." (p. 101).  This "pioneering" is what leads me to consider Port and Kit very brave, particularly Port.  Sure, they do a lot of the same type of things in each place they go to: visit the cafes, markets, eat meals etc. like Jake and Co. did in The Sun Also Rises, but Port and Kit's interactions with nature are much more powerful and frequent than Jake's.  Last week in class we discussed the importance of the pastoral experience/environment and even though Port and Kit's environment is that of a desert, similar vital experiences can be had.  Already we have been given many moment by Bowles of Port out on his walks in the desert or Kit and Port going on their bike ride.  The moments when the sheer scope and magnitude of the places they are in completely eats them whole are the ones that seem to lead to the most self-reflection, self-realization, self-analyzation whether Port and Kit like it or not.  However unlike the pastoral environment which we said was a return to "simplicity", these Technicolor, Cinemascope moments in the desert seem to be filled with complications and grappling, instead of "relief" and "innocence".  The reader has a yearning for Port and Kit to be on the same page, to stop bypassing each other and to get to the point.  Perhaps nature will not help them accomplish this because as Jack Collins says in his Bowles article: "Port and Kit Moresby...embark on an ultimate journey into the Sahara that draws Port into the infinity of death and Kit into the isolation of madness," (Approaching Paul Bowles).  It seems like nature could destroy them, not return them to a state of simplicity and innocence.

While reading The Sheltering Sky, I began to think about how this story differed from the previous travel stories in which we have read. Paul Bowles' novel incorporates the themes of travel just like the previous works we have read and discussed but does so in a different manner from that of Daisy Miller and The Sun Also Rises. In The Sheltering Sky, Port, Kit and Tunner travel throughout Northern Africa in search of bettering their relationships and yet it seems like nothing is being accomplished throughout the story. As John Aldrige mentions in his article, "Paul Bowles: The Canceled Sky" http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:15610/ps/i.do?id=GALE|H1420085182&v=2.1&markList=true&u=new64731&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w, "Kit and Port Moresby, doomed exiles in the contemporary wasteland, move without motive from sensation to sensation through the heat and squalor of Africa. They have no history and no destination. Their names on their passports are their only proof of life, the labels on their luggage their only record of their passage through time." Port, Kit and Tunner travel aimlessly throughout Africa in search of something they don't even know that they are looking for. Although this bleak outlook can be reminiscent of The Sun Also Rises in a way, it is different because of the themes of travel or lack there of that the novel seems to follow.

In the beginning of the novel, we are exposed to Port as being a tourist. Paul Bowles writes, "He did not think of himself as a traveler. The difference is partly one of time, he would explain. Whereas 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" (6). At first this seems to be a valid interpretation of the travelers. They travel from Oran to Boussif and then to Ain Krorfa in search of what seems a new place to absorb in their surroundings and live through the locals. Port often displays this type of behavior by going down a tent with strangers, biking late at night and even joining Mohammed in Ain Krorfa to a brothel. Although some of these actions may be sexual in nature, he still is experiencing what truly happens in these places and is encountering and interacting with the locals. We see this further more when Bowles describes what Port does in the afternoon as Kit lays in her room. Bowles says, "In the afternoon he walked by the river watched the Spahis training on their perfect white horses, their blue capes flying behind in the wind" (124). Port is actually going out and exploring the town which shows how he is their as a traveler and not quite a tourist. The travelers further display this behavior when they eat out at the local cafes or even in the hotels sipping homemade tea and eating the food even if it doesn't taste up to their liking.

This behavior that resembles tourists however isnt what Bowles is getting at in my opinion. The travelers indeed don't resemble tourists or travelers. They seem lost as they travel aimlessly throughout northern Africa. Port hopes to better his relationship with Kit while Tunner hopes to spring up a relationship with her. Up until pg. 138. neither of these two actions are completed. Port does attempt to fix his relationship with Kit by going on a bike ride with her and getting rid of Tunner but it is to no avail. Instead, Port seems to be too busy worrying about visiting brothels and encountering prostitutes. After meeting with Marhnia in a tent earlier in the novel, he returns to a brothel in Ain Krorfa. Bowles describes Port's fantasy as, "And in bed, without eyes to see beyond the bed, she would have been completely there, a prisoner" (134).  Kit, although seemingly happy to get rid of Tunner had second thoughts. She cannot choose between Tunner and her husband, Port. Bowles says, "The deceit of the maneuver, if she was correct was too bald" (119). Even though she wants Tunner gone, she cannot leave him behind like Port wants to do which further shows how the characters are in a downward spiral in which they are traveling for no means whatsoever. In their minds they hope to accomplish their goals and find themselves and yet none of them has accomplished anything showing how they are lost souls of the post-war generation.

Paul Bowles seems to think he knows what he’s talking about when he describes the characters as travelers. Port explains that “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” (pg. 6). It seems that this is the only reason Port actually wants to travel: to maintain the image that he belongs nowhere and at the same time everywhere, making his home in even the most tourist unfriendly locations of the world. Something about this definition and lifestyle of a “true” traveler, however, does not seem right, especially in Port and Kit’s case. 

The travels of the Lyle’s are juxtaposed with those of the Moresby’s, attempting to show how false the Lyle’s travels are in comparison to the traveling of Porter, Kit and Tunner. Mrs. Lyle  shows no tolerance for the natives of the towns they are staying in, often appearing disgusted and offended by their existence. She says the Arab women are “all contaminated” (pg. 82), and in Ain Krorfa is paranoid that the “thieving” children will steal from her car (pg. 111). Porter even believes that most of Eric’s travel stories are made up, taking further credibility away from the Lyle’s status as travelers. 

Taking a closer look, however, it appears that as fraudulent as some of the Lyle’s stories may seem, they are probably much more of “real” travelers than Port and his companions. At one point, Port reveals that he read an article warning tourists to stay away from French Africa, and admits that this is mostly why he wanted to travel there. He wants to feel as though he’s “pioneering” (pg. 101), yet they only stay in the nicest hotels and spend their whole time complaining about them. Moreover, the only real interactions they have with the natives are negative: Smail, Marhnia the dancer, Kit getting lost on the train, and tea with M. Chaoui.

To me, it looks as though Port is only in Africa so he can say he’s been there in order to elevate his status as a traveler. The Lyle’s, on the other hand, are genuinely there to stay, know the areas like the back of their hand, and haven’t left despite the extreme discomfort and illness they endure. Mrs. Lyle even calls Ain Krorfa a “charming town” (pg. 111), while Kit calls it a “nightmare” (pg. 127). And as horrible as the Lyle’s are made out to seem, even being called monsters by Port and Kit, they spend more time with them then anyone else. In fact, it seems that they spend more time with them then they do outside of their hotel at all. The more of the book I read, the less Port seems to fit his own description of himself. 

When I started reading the Sheltering Sky, I was very turned off to Port, the main character. For some reason, the first scene of him evaluating his dream seemed phony, and I sort of took Kit’s side and thought that his map obsession was a bit dull, and that no one really does care about his dreams. And, within the first few pages, it says that he believes “he was not a tourist, but instead a traveler,” (6) Which I find to be a very arrogant judgment to make about yourself. If you believe you are a traveler instead of a tourist, you are thinking too much about it, and are still as unauthentic as a tourist.  I was also pretty disgusted by the way he handled the situation with Smail. First, he was completely turned off to a new experience, so much so that he was physically trying to get away from the man at all costs. During their conversation, he thinks that he “wanted at all costs to keep up the pretense of being familiar with the town” (21) to seem knowledgeable to the man. This is the definition of a tourist (or a inauthentic traveler) to me, someone who just becomes familiar with a place to seem clever to others. Once he finally was there, he still did not take it in. He was bored by the fable he told and was only interested by the prospect of sex with the woman he brought. With each of his actions, he seemed less like a traveler and more like an arrogant, dumb tourist. Things didn’t change when he got back to the hotel, where his inner monologue contrasted from his nice outer demeanor to Eric Lyle’s endless rant about the best place to exchange money in the area. At a point, he thinks to himself that he “hoped he was the only traveler.” What a selfish, egotistical way to think.

However, as the story went on, Port’s character became more likable. Perhaps it was in comparison to the other morally unsound characters, like his wife Kit and friend Tunner (interpreting the words wife and friend very loosely) and Eric Lyle and his dreadful mother, but as the book went on Port’s character seemed to grow in depth. The trip to Boussif with the Lyle’s perhaps is the most stark contrast—all Mrs. Lyle can do is talk about all the things she hates, and Port’s inner monologue shows how much he hates her intolerance. Once in Boussif, his view on traveling seems different than it was in the first port city they were in (which is unclear… I chose this picture of Oman, because that’s what one of the critics said it was). He says that traveling is going when you feel like going and staying when you feel like staying, which is a much more appropriate definition of traveling, not “as opposed to tourism”. Also, when in Boussif and when compared to Kit’s paranoid nature, Port’s deep thought seems much more intelligent. I liked the detail of him going back to Boussif at night without Kit to watch the land. It seemed like a very authentic, not touristy thing to do. But we will see how Port’s character develops in the rest of the book.

As a reader, Kit’s vivid description of a man with “the most hideous human face she had ever seen” led to a deeper understanding of the characterization used in the story. This one section, pages 77-78, describes a man without a nose and with white lips; Kit imagines him to look like a lion. Further, she begins to question the reasoning behind her own disgust at his face and insinuates that her reaction was due to the materialistic age in which she lives. It is interesting to analyze Kit’s train of thought to gain insight into the reason a character reacts the way he or she does, and, even more, to see what provokes us to travel.
 
Kit says. “Nothing should be so horrible to look at than a face whose tissues are healthy but whose expression reveals an interior corruption”. I feel that this line is presented perfectly; it explains the essence of our judgmental nature as humans. Also, it is evident that Kit believes she may be in the presence of those with a clear exterior but a “corrupt” interior. Because of this, the reader is able to view Kit as a multifaceted character; we can relate to her statements because we have all dealt with people who appear one way but turn out to be completely different. As if to prove her inner purity or righteousness, Kit then spends almost the rest of the train ride in the fourth class section with the natives and lower-class people. It appears that she wanted so much to go against her initial feelings of dislike towards the man with the “horrible” face and perhaps to punish herself for her closed-minded emotions. 
 
Kit’s physical location at the time of this statement is symbolic of the journey on which she is embarking. The train is bringing Kit to her husband while her soon-to-be lover waits only a few train cars away. Rain is seen as a cleansing entity in literature, therefore it can be seen that Kit is attempting a new start when she positions herself where the storm will drench her. The movement of the train and the action of travel in general is a constant theme in the book. Kit, Port and Tunner are traveling throughout Africa for a reason unknown to the reader. This gives the story an air of mystery and the feeling of constant motion, an attribute that keeps the audience involved in the happenings of the characters.
 
Overall, this short moment in Kit’s story provides enough insight to make the reader invested in her life. We begin to see her not only as Port’s wife or a woman who places too much store in omens, but also as a woman trying to find herself in a foreign place.
 
 

An ongoing theme from class and our readings has been the use of travel in learning about oneself. Through exploring new places and cultures, we are able to become more self-aware and it "shows us all the parts of ourselves that might otherwise grow rusty." (The Iyer article from the first day of class. How I do love that one.) In Paul Bowles' novel, Port shows great insight into himself and those around him, careful not to be a disturbance to those in their natural habitat. 

 

Before meeting Smail, Port ruminates about the faces around him, wondering who they are, what they are feeling and what they know. At seeing their starving bodies, he feels a sense of guilt about being "well fed and healthy among them." (14-15) And as he keeps walking, regardless of his "fatigue," he predicts that he will turn around, but vows to keep going until then. Again and again through this one night, he makes comments to himself that reflect his insight. Upon realizing that Tunner is after his wife, he turns to leave the village that Smail was showing him. "After six steps he stopped and looked around. 'What can I do tonight?' he thought. 'I'm using this as an excuse to get out of here, because I'm afraid."

 

Even Port himself acknowledges his perceptiveness especially when away from home, as “it was often on trips that he thought most clearly, and made the decisions that he could not reach when he was stationary.” (98) And he comes to the conclusion that “walking through the countryside was a sort of epitome of the passage through life itself. One never took the time to savor the details; one said: another day, but always with the hidden knowledge that each day was unique and final, that there never would be a return, another time.” (126) This is a grand philosophy on life, one that would not come to someone that didn’t spend ample time thinking about their world. 

 

The problem with his self-awareness, is that it makes it harder to forgive him for his unfaithfulness to his wife. He should know that his actions are counterproductive to reconciling with Kit. What makes this even worse is that he so easily understands her as well. He says, “I think we’re both afraid of the same thing. And for the same reason. We’ve never managed, either one of us, to get all the way into life. We’re hanging on to the outside for all we’re worth, convinced we’re going to fall off the next bump.” (94) He knows her weaknesses and her fears and although he’s not exploiting them, he is not making himself someone that she can trust. 

 

This is not to say that I side with her either. She too was unfaithful, though while I can appreciate Port’s insightfulness and willingness to be immersed in another culture, Kit’s take on her surroundings as well as her own needs are often childish and judgmental.  Rather than accepting Port’s interest in understanding his dream, she chastises him for telling it to Tunner, saying that “it’s such a humiliating dream,” (12) later hinting that it was more so for her. Her complaints that everything eventually resembles each other are just as superficial as the comments she condones in the village while drinking tea with M. Chaoui. (123)

 

At this point in our reading, I have to wonder what a travel story would be like if it were written by a woman. So far, none of them women have been in the least bit admirable. Is that what American women really look like? 

The characters in The Sheltering Sky are precisely the kind of so called “travelers” that Huxley detests. Not only are their reasons for travelling those of the “tourist” persuasion, but their attitudes and reactions to Morocco mirror societal stereotypes of privileged, ignorant Westerners.
Kit and Port clearly have an unhappy, dying marriage. The trip for them is a last resort to try and fix the gaping holes in their relationship. Kit and Port feel disconnected and hope that not only a change of scenery will help their relationship, but also that some sort of shared experience will create a new bond for them. Neither of these proves to be true. It is almost impossible for them to have similar thoughts and emotional connections:                        
“ Riding down to Boussif he realized he never could tell Kit that he had been back there. She would not understand his having wanted to return without her. Or perhaps, he reflected, she would understand it all too well.” (96)
The foreign setting of the story furthers the same that are somewhat estranged from each other. Not only are they outsiders in Morroco, but they are outsiders within their own relationship.
Port and Kit both seem to have somewhat ignorant attitudes towards travelling and foreign cultures. Kit is preoccupied with her individual anxieties and neuroses, reducing her surroundings to a homogenous dirty Arabic world. Like many Western women, she looks down upon the native people and feels uncomfortable with less than luxurious amenities. Port to me seemed, to a certain extent, indifferent. He thinks all the Arabs on the street look the same, and sees them only a mass of outsiders. Though to his credit, he is willing to explore more than Kit is, almost all of his personal observations and adventures have less to do with what he is seeing and more to do with him. Port is a man who is missing something, and is constantly trying to find it.
The Lyles are hysterical characters. They are clearly meant to be satirical- Eric is stupid and spoiled, while his mother is ignorant and prejudiced. Eric claims that they love travelling and Africa, but all they do is complain about something- whether it is the “filthy Arabs”, the heat, the diseases. They are the people Huxley was talking about who want to appear cultured and sophisticated, feigning enjoyment. Not only are the Lyles not as intelligent and worldly as they try to be, but they are unable to appreciate the wonders of the places they travel. 

Africa is so real because they haven’t completely industrialized compared to many nations in the “modern” industrialized world. The deserts are so clean and free of the pollution created by human. On the other hand, cultures clash in places like New York and it becomes difficult to discern one’s nationality from another’s. The vocabulary becomes one as well as musical interests and desires. Consumerism and advertisements make up a large part of why people buy and do what they do. People have been told how to behave since the beginning of man and colonization was just the beginning with religion. Some parts of Africa have been influenced, but the desert is largely untouched. Paul Bowles chose Africa as the setting for the novel, The Sheltering Sky, so he can show how cultures clash with the Lyles, Port, Kit, Tunner, and the Arabs, French, and Spanish they encounter.
Syrine C. Hout explains the influence of Bowles’ travels on the novel through the essay,Grains of Utopia: The Desert as Literary Oasis in Paul Bowles's The Sheltering Sky and Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian Sands. She mentions, “Its very emptiness guarantees its beauty and excitement,” because of the simplicity and silence found in the desert. There is no Western influence on the desert keeping it pure. Bowles believes, "mechanization, pollution, noise--all the things that the twentieth century has brought and scattered over the world,” and the Sahara is free of all of those things. It makes for a beautiful setting for and a place that only a real traveler would appreciate.
Mrs. Lyle is a flaming racist as well as an example of a tourist. She thinks all of the inhabitants of the cities she visits are foul including the Arabs, French, and Jews. She can not wait to leave for her next destination and she has an itinerary already decided. Travelers are supposed to let the desire to travel come naturally. One can’t force travel.
Mrs. Lyle also considers the hotel she’s in as a part of her opinion of the city. She advises Port to stay in Boussif and says, “This is positively luxurious. This is the best hotel you’ll find between here and the Congo. There’s nothing after this with running water, you know,” (83). Hotels try to emulate home. They have floral wallpaper and warm paintings to help you feel comfortable in a foreign place. When Mrs. Lyle comments on the luxuriousness of the hotel in Boussif, she makes it clear that she doesn’t travel to travel. She travels and enjoys what she can remember from her home.
Mrs. Lyle behaves the way she does due to the environment she lived in back in England. She created all these preconceptions of every race so she had opinions before meeting anyone. I don’t appreciate people like Mrs. Lyle because there’s so much to learn from other cultures. The Arabs and Jews that she runs into aren’t any worse than she is. They just behave in ways that can be considered faux pas to her, but are completely normal for them. That’s why it’s difficult to judge others on one’s own beliefs.

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles examines the lives of Port, Kit, and Tunner as they travel across North Africa. Port is determined to explore and connect with the world around him, and while doing so, subjects Kit and Tunner to some misery. Kit, his wife, is there only because of her own aimlessness and her love for him, while Tunner has romanticized the idea of the trip and also hopes to the seduce Kit. From the start, it is obvious that the character’s all come to the trip wanting and expecting different things. However, the setting does not allow them to gain much from the experience. The Sahara desert and the villages they visit are unwelcoming, inhumane, and even dangerous. They are not offered comfort. Tunner and Kit are the most obviously disgusted with their surroundings—at one point Tunner cannot finish his meal because there are bugs in it—but even Port cannot describe the landscape as comfortable. This is essential to understanding the characters’ experiences in North Africa. They all may be searching for something, but they cannot get anything from the desert, because it destroys rather than creates. It is because of this that the reader understands that their trip cannot reach a good ending.

Furthermore, there Bowles introduces Kit and Port in such a way that they contrast as travelers. Port sees himself as an authentic traveler. He does not see himself a tourist. More importantly, he is constantly searching for the authentic, traveling from one place to another, interacting with natives, all in search of an experience. However, it is possibly more apt to say that he is looking for an identity, as he says “he would have found it difficult to tell…precisely where it was he had felt most at home” (6). This is crucial in understanding his character, because in some ways he is nothing more than a nomad. He has no real connections. He is constantly looking for an escape. Port may see himself as an authentic traveler—and he arguably is—but his motives for travel are not for the pleasure of it or the desire to explore; he is looking for an escape. Kit, on the other hand, is honest in dispassion for travel. As she narrates, she does what Port tells her to, because Port gives her definition. She is not the authentic traveler, but I would not hasten to say she is a tourist. In reality, she is a lot like Port, searching for something to give structure and meaning to their lives.

Finally, what is notable about this story is how Port and Kit both interact with the natives. Port is active in his desire to talk with the natives, while Kit is often dragged into it. In fact, the one time Port forces her to come along to a dinner part, she acts like a spoiled child. On the train ride with Tunner being so close to the poverty and desolation of the natives horrifies her. Kit may seem crass in her interactions with the natives, but Port reacts just as poorly, except more subtly. He may seek out their company, but he exploits them, specifically their women. While, it is obvious that some of the women from the country gain the majority of the their money through prostitution, it is still uncomfortable to read how Port goes about pursuing it. The first time, the conversation reads like a business transaction; it does not seem like they are discussing another human being. He notes that he feels guilty for cheating on Kit, but his emotional reaction does not go much deeper than this. Thus, while Port may pursue relations with the native, there is a level of exploitation present which makes it disconcerting.

Time is said to be the main difference between travelers and tourists. While tourists have limited time they have for staying, often in hurry with tight schedules that try to cram all the major attractions of the destination, travelers have all the time they want and “go when [they] feel like going and stay where [they] feel like staying” (61). When Eric Lyle has made some “mad itinerary,” Port claims he has no plans and moves in flexibility when it comes to time.
 
Having been travelling for quite a while, the Moresbys seem to have lost the sense of time. The novel begins with Port in his bed, unaware of his surroundings. He looks at his watch but only as a habit; in fact, looking at time only makes him more perplexed.
 
Wandering around aimlessly, the couple is accustomed to irregularity and leisure. When they talk, it’s portrayed without much energy or spark like I’d expect people traveling across the exotic places would: “They conversed quietly, and in the manner of people who have all the time in the world for everything” (13). Toward the end of the Book I, it says one mistake they made was their treatment of time: “Because neither she nor Port had lived a life of any kind of regularity, they both had made the fatal error of coming hazily to regard time as non-existent. One year was like another year. Eventually everything would happen” (133).
 
I wonder if losing a sense of time is really a mistake when you travel and live in the moment. When you are totally in synch with time or with whatever you are doing that is totally a bliss, wouldn’t you be unaware of time? Perhaps it’s “the fatal error’’ for the Moresbys. Regardless, the “travelers” of the novel seem to travel in seeming eternity and leisure.