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The Traveling Horror Story
Can anybody understand me?
While reading the novel, The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, I felt as if I was reading a horror story rather than a travel novel. For the trio of travelers in the novel everything that could go wrong does. With every new leg of their journey through Africa the travelers go further into an unknown land where they come into contact with so many frightening situations that lead me to pose many questions. How did these American travelers get themselves into such a dark and frightening mess? There are many places to put this blame, but perhaps the most interesting and prevalent theory is to blame the lack of communication present between the natives and the travelers.
There are many instances in the novel when Bowles includes fragments of the “native tongue” when discussing encounters the travelers experienced. He includes words like “stenna” and “chouia” (p. 264), which are presumably from the native language of that region, in order to make the reader feel a sense of discomfort with what is transpiring among the travelers we follow. Most likely the majority of Bowles readers could not have understood these words. So, why include them? I think that by adding these unrecognizable words in his dialogue, Bowles is bringing the reader into the world of his characters. Reading these unknown words may give the reader the same feeling that Port, Kit, and Tunner had when they heard these statements. It brings about an uneasy feeling to not be able to understand what the people around you are saying. The inclusion of this linguistic barrier links the emotions of the characters with those of the readers.
When Kit spends her time with Belqassim there is virtually no sound communication between the two. For me this is when the novel reaches its darkest point. Kit is alone in a foreign land with a group of people who she cannot understand and who cannot understand her. This sentiment is scary and isolating for any human being. Without that line of communication it is difficult, if not impossible, to know that both parties are on the same page. Kit could have been agreeing to things she didn’t necessarily want because of this huge language barrier. Without knowing exactly what Belqassim was saying, Kit was put in a vulnerable position.
For many people a language barrier can be a huge disadvantage while living or traveling in a foreign locale. In this novel this barrier became a crippling division and morphed Port, Kit, and Tunner’s trip to Africa into a true horror story.
You said that for you the
You said that for you the novel reaches its darkest point when Kit becomes involved (for lack of a better word) with Belqassim because of their inability to communicate. I agree that "The Sky" was probably the most upsetting or shocking book in the novel, but I don't think their lack of verbal communication is the reason for the unease I felt reading it. Kit and Belqassim don't really struggle to communicate, they use gesture and signs, but I think Kit's complete abandonment of the use of her voice is unsettling. She so easily just stops speaking and forgets that part of herself. She submits to the silence.
I agree with Alison in that
I agree with Alison in that we can not simply blame the trio's problems on the communication barrier that they so often run into. Because the characters so instantly refer to themselves as "travelers" and not "tourists" (as I babbled about in my entry), they should be a little more open to learning the new language. Instead, they frequently respond in English when they are spoken to in French. Thus, while problems do in fact occur due to the language barrier, I think that this in fact points to a bigger issue, being the inability of many to embrace new cultures and acclimate to new areas so fully as to learn the language. The trio's inability to do so may have been what caused their tragedies.
Murphy's Law
I completely agree with you about the “Murphy’s Law” aspect of this novel: everything that could go wrong, does go wrong, but I really don’t think that we can blame the language barrier for the misfortunate situations that the characters happen to find themselves in. I should probably rephrase that a little, because the characters don’t just happen to find themselves in these devastating situations, they put themselves there. All of the three main characters have major vices that are the primary reason that they find themselves alone in the end. None of them are honest with one another and all three sleep around. If they could have just had an open and honest discussion with each other about how they felt and what their motives were, I truly believe that they could have fixed the situation before it got out of hand. If they had been able to communicate with one another about their insecurities and fears they could have come to some sort of mutual understanding and the events of the book would not have transpired as they did. It is quite clear that Kit, Port, and Tunner have no one to blame for their predicament except themselves.