Travelers Vs. Tourists in a War Torn Desert

I wanted to juxtapose the Lyles and the main three characters. While one can write off the Lyle’s as being character examples of the “typical tourists” I do not think they are as simple as that. The Lyles are introduced as loud, interesting, and always bickering, attracting much attention. Mrs. Lyle’s inability to speak any language, and her refusal to admit this (such as when she is yelling “in French” at the boys who are looking at her car), makes her the perfect, stereotypical rich tourist. When Eric is introduced personally for the first time, when we see him with Port, Port makes the observation that Eric Lyle seems to want to be the only traveler in the area. The way in which Port notes this conveys the feeling that Port knows just as much as Eric Lyle, or at least believes that Lyle is being childish in his way of acting. Port, Kit, and Tunner seem to be more relaxed about their travels and get along better with those in the cultures around them. Or at least, that is the assumption that one can make if they don’t look too deeply into the story.
There is an unspoken wish in Port to think of himself as a “traveler” and the Lyles as “tourists”. Yet there is nothing that justifies Ports being a “traveler”, he himself didn’t know that tea houses still existed where there were only Arabs. Although Eric Lyle and his mother may not have much class –which is the reason we are tempted to write them off as “travelers”-, they do know the geography of the area very well. Along with this, Eric knows how to get himself money selling passports, and his Mother is not your typical tourist. Looking further than just main appearances, we see that Mrs. Lyle is exactly the opposite of a proper and ignorant tourist. She manipulates her son, and gets him to do all the work for her. Eric knows the correct way of negotiating what he wants, and manages to sell passports on the black market. Meanwhile Port is left accusing innocent people simply because they are Arab and gets himself into many bad situations with the locals. Kit and Tunner could care less where they are, things just aren’t working out for either of them. I think it is interesting to look at the Lyles as something more than just the typical “tourists” because, if compared to Port and Kit, they don’t seem as ignorant as we originally perceive them to be.