English 015 - Americans Abroad
A Sign of Things to Come
A Sign of Things to Come
Category: 06B: The Sheltering Sky | Zac Milner
“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 at the next bump,” Port says on page 101. As travelers, port and Kit are homeless, and this homelessness makes them fear lifelessness.
The Lyles are a strange duo to begin with, but their complete lifelessness is reassuring to Port. His first impression of them is that they are not real people. The narrator describes Eric Lyle, as Port first see him, as a “formless face” and “non-existen[t];” Mrs. Lyle is associated with a “doll,” (53) and later “an automation or a caricature” (54). As Port gets more intimate with the Lyles, his judgment is reinforced. Like a doll, Mrs. Lyle constantly needs her tea time, and Port says “her life had been devoid of personal contacts” (73).
Although their lifelessness makes them creepy, the Lyles are not threatening to Port. He thrives on an ability to understand tangible things, like maps. The Lyles are easy to understand for Port; seeing how pathetic and out of touch they are, Port feels, by association, “way into life.”
But in the end port misjudges them, and this is what’s threatening. It turns out the Lyles are mysterious, and the secrecy of their relationship makes them full of life. The Lyles themselves don’t represent a threat, but they are a threat to Port’s way of thinking: for if he has miscalculated on them, he is likely to do the same with others.
Posted by on November 06, 2003 at 12:51 PM