The Journey Into Otherness In Paul Bowles's 'Sheltering Sky'

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The journey into Otherness in The Sheltering Sky
“The novel was described by the author as “an adventure story in which the adventures take place on two planes simultaneously: the actual desert, and in the inner desert of the spirit” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2016)
Abstract
In The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, the journey is to lands where possibilities to reconsider the American values and identity seem to be attainable as well as to areas where life conditions are thought of as simple. This journey can be seen from two central perspectives. The first has to do with the geographical aspect through which a surface narration of the places the three American travelers (Port, Kit and Tunner) placed their feet on whereas the second is related to what is psychological and spiritual taking into consideration how the journey changes the way those travelers perceive each other and the outside world. Therefore, this paper will deal with these two perspectives and examine how their interplay contributes to give the journey as well as the novel their significance.
Introduction
The United States of America, with a great deal of uncertainty, enters the First World War unaware of its repercussions. Ultimately, the European experience of a great civilization being devastated and devastating; of social collapse; of the individual’s annihilation, alienation and powerlessness, and of the fragmentation of large scale-wars, was also an American experience. Like the European self, the American