English 015 - Americans Abroad
Changes in the Sahara: Port's Descent into Hypocrisy
Changes in the Sahara: Port's Descent into Hypocrisy
Category: 3E: Bowles | Thomas Buehrens
Port defines his journey into the Sahara as a way in which he may distance himself from the Western influence he loathes. Though his travels lead him physically farther from Western culture, Port is slowly driven to actually embody the qualities of the system he hates. The harder Port tries to escape the West, the more Western he becomes in both behavior and thought. Similar to model of western colonizers, Port’s initial interest is in exploring Northern Africa, but like all colonizers, exploration is not enough for Port, and he eventually needs to control his surroundings and impose his Western traditions.
In order to separate himself from European influence, Port tries to immerse himself in the native culture. It is in Port’s nature to explore: “He walked through the streets, unthinkingly seeking the darker ones” (Bowles, 22). This walk is Port’s first chance to escape. The first time he can get away from western establishments, he wanders through the Arab quarter. Port also desires to fit in with the locals preventing his common sense: “…now he was no longer sure of the way. It would never do to let this be seen” (Bowles, 28). Port tries to convince himself that he is as able to function in a foreign land as he is in Europe. This lie comforts him because it helps convince him that he is truly not one of the Europeans that he so despises. His satisfaction at distancing himself from the western sphere of influence is very obvious when he finds himself in native culture. Port exclaims, “I didn’t know there was anything like this left in this city,” referring to a café filled with natives in local dress (Bowles, 29). Refuges like this could keep Port content if he didn’t constantly run into reminders of the West.
When Port meets Mr. Lyle, he immediately dislikes him because Mr. Lyle is Western, yet reminds Port of himself. Similar to the false confidence Port displayed when he was walking the streets of the Arab quarter, Mr. Lyle talks about Africa as if he is the preeminent expert on it: “I think I’m a rather good person to give you such information” (Bowles, 58). Throughout this conversation Port assumes this to be a performance, calling Mr. Lyle “completely theatrical” (Bowles, 58). From the moment Port meets the Lyle’s he takes personal offense at many of their actions. He sees them as the type of colonizers that he is trying to avoid because they are ruining Africa. As Mrs. Lyle ceases her insults targeted toward the Arabs and Jews, and begins to worry about getting her afternoon tea, Port comes to see her as “even more objectionable than her son” (Bowles, 73). Port sees her insults and need to “always carry the tea…with [her]” to be examples of the very materialism and Eurocentrism that he is trying to avoid.
Port soon decides to travel farther inland, in search of areas less touched by outside influence. In Ain Krorfa, Port tests the limits of exploration, slowly falling into the realm of intrusion that he claims to so despise. He and Kit take a bike ride out to the city limits where “they could see the endless flat desert beyond” (Bowles, 99). Kit feeling the detachment from familiar surroundings is frightened, but Port, trying to escape, loves the sense of isolation, “The very silences and emptiness that touched his soul, terrified her” (Bowles, 100). Port enjoys going into unfamiliar territory because he sees himself as getting away from his roots. Once again though, he ignores an obvious sign that he does not belong where he is: an old blind man is praying on a rock near Port and Kit. Kit says, “Do you think we should sit here at watch [the old man] like this?” to which Port responds, “It’s all right, we’ll just sit here quietly” (Bowles, 101). Kit understands the violation of his space and the greater violation of the natives’ home that she and Port are imposing upon, but Port just wants to watch and learn, feeling no sense that he is out of place. Port’s need to run from the West does not allow him to stay in Ain Krorfa long either.
As Port becomes more desperate to flee his roots and his past, he becomes increasingly forceful in his attempts. Port starts having a need for control that he did not possess earlier. This lust for control manifests itself at a café with prostitutes. At first Port is not interested in any of the women, but when he realizes one of them is blind, she becomes irresistible to him: “…all at once the realization came to him that the girl was blind. The knowledge hit him like an electric shock; he felt his heart leap ahead and his head grow suddenly hot” (Bowles, 138). Port’s attraction to the girl comes for two reasons: the fact that she is physically blind symbolizes to Port her inability to see him for who he is, not physically, but for his Western roots that he is trying so frantically to escape. The second reason she is so irresistible to him is because she represents a situation where he can be in total control. Port cannot control who he is, or his Western ties, no matter how deep he travels into the Sahara, away from reminders of his roots but with this blind girl, he can control everything that happens to her, fulfilling his need for control. Processing this need in his head, Port fantasizes about the girl:
…in bed, without eyes to see beyond the bed, she would have been completely there, a prisoner. He thought of the little games he would have played with her, pretending to have disappeared when he was really still there; he thought of the countless ways he could have made her grateful to him. (Bowles, 140)
This statement shows how Port’s actions have moved completely away from his stated intentions at the beginning of the book. Port wanted more than anything else to get away from imperialism, the notion of control, and the dominance with which Europe and the West exercise over perceivably pure cultures. This escape was the reason Port traveled to Africa in the first place, but this fantasy shows the evolution of his thoughts to the point where he wants to be the controller, and cruel oppressor.
Port’s forcefulness does not end with the blind girl, but rather expands, following him to even the most rudimentary activities. Later that same evening, Port decides that he wants tea, but Mohammed tells him it is too late. He defiantly refuses to listen: “Why…I must [have tea]” (Bowles, 142). Port will not take no for an answer though. After being told no by Mohammed, Port asks an Arab woman, who also says no. Port is insistent though, offering her first 100 francs, and then 200, raising the price absurdly to get what he wants. Not only is he being controlling and demanding of the locals, Port is plagued by the very quirk Mrs. Lyle had that he complained so bitterly about. Port despised Mrs. Lyle’s need for tea, perceiving it as an example of the penetration of the West into Africa, yet here, it is Port that is desperate for tea.
In coming to the Sahara, Port is attempting to sever his connections with the colonial West he hates so much. He wanted to “get all the way into life” (Bowles, 101). However, Port’s gradual progression from an explorer to an exploiter has brought him successively closer to ways of the world he hates. With his insistence upon having tea, and his controlling fantasy about the blind girl, Port has reached a the limits of reality: his conscious battle to escape the control and the infiltration of European customs which he associates with the West, competes directly with his inner need for dominance and his own Western customs. Port’s declining health reflects his internal battle: Port’s deterioration and death symbolize the death of the colonial powers as Africa rises from its subjugation. Ironically, while Port tries to distance himself from these Western powers and immerse himself in African culture, even he is buried in a Christian grave.
Posted by on November 24, 2003 at 12:25 AM
Comments
This paper is a notable improvement on the last. Your intro is a model of economy and focus, and the grammatical stumbles have been cut down. The paper defines and does a fair amount of work exploring a paradox at the heart of Port’s character. You’ve noticed a fundamental flaw, one that seems crucial for a full understanding of SS.
You know exactly what you want to argue from the start, and this shows in the intro, which gets right into the topic and does a great job at defining the paradoxical twist of your argument. This opening sets you up for an A paper, and though there turn out to be a gap in proof as the argument unfolds, your comprehensive definition of the argument stands you in good stead throughout the essay.
The gap: oddly enough, you don’t carefully state and prove a claim that the essay starts to rely on quite a lot as it unfolds: that Port really does despise Europeans, and is plunging into all things Arab as a way of getting away from them. I think you could prove that big assumption, but it isn’t really done here. We get oblique reference to how Port ‘constantly run[s] into reminders of the West’ and you claim that Port despises Lyle because he is Western, but you could be more carefully explicit about proving that Port is trying to ‘[get] away from his roots.’
Without this proof, the blind-girl reading gets a little undermined; you’re relying more than ever on the claim that Port is ‘trying so frantically to escape’ Western roots. And I’m not entirely sure how the urge to control her is connected to this frantic escape.
The essay is more convincing – quite striking insightful, really – when you connect P & EL via their false bravado in ‘knowing’ Africa, or you connect P & Mrs. L via their demand for tea. You’re canny and consistent with this idea of progressing from explorer to exploiter. More care in defining how the desire to “get all the way into life” is, for Port, the same thing as escaping a hated colonialism would make this interesting reading even more convincing.