English 015 - Americans Abroad
The Promise of Pain
The Promise of Pain
Category: 06B: The Sheltering Sky | Tom Lakin
“ ‘She’s a hysterical old hag, and the boy - ! He’s a real criminal degenerate if I ever saw one. He gives me the creeps’ ” (Bowles 65). Though there is no evidence that the Lyles are at all dangerous, they are disturbing to Port and Kit. This eerie feeling stems from the constant bad omens which seem to surround any interaction Port and Kit have with the Lyles.
When Port and Kit first meet the Lyles, they are left with a chilling impression because of the strange events which follow the meeting. First, Port gets bitten by mosquitoes, leaving him with an irritating itch: “Scratching the fleshy part of his hands, where the mosquitoes had just bitten him, he walked slowly out of the room” (Bowles 57). This itch is soon followed by a distinct indigestion, which bothers Port: “He had a slight indigestion – not a sourness, but the promise of a pain which at the moment was only a tiny physical unhappiness in some unlocatable center” (Bowles 57). This indigestion is much like the feeling Port and Kit have for the Lyles. They are apprehensive about the Lyle’s presence because they sense some kind of danger, yet they cannot quite identify where this danger stems from, or what form it will take.
A later meeting with Eric Lyle also brings negative omens. He appears to Port while Port is perplexed by the first clouds he has seen: “In the morning, as he was standing in the window wondering at the first clouds he had seen since the mid-Atlantic, a knock came at the door; it was Eric Lyle” (Bowles 63). These clouds serve as another bad omen noticed in the presence of the Lyles.
Port and Kit’s discomfort with the Lyles can be clearly seen in their descriptions of the family. Eric is described as “…a young Vacher…the one who wandered across France slicing children into pieces…” (Bowles 54). The mother is also negatively described as a “hysterical old hag” (Bowles 65). This technique of negative description is used throughout, whenever either of the Lyles is introduced.
Posted by on November 06, 2003 at 02:14 PM