The Sheltering Sky by the American author Paul Bowles is about three American travelleres; the Moresbys: Port and Kit who are married for twelve years, and their friend Tunner. Affected by the Second World War, the Travellers make a journey through the Sahara to escape from the disaster caused by the war. Port, Kit and Tunner first visit Oran, a city in Algeria. Port is satisfied with his travelling, but Kit is bothered by fear that every weird event on their journey will lead to death.
During this time, Port is seduced by an Arab prostitute and has sex with her. In Oran, the Moresbys and Tunner encounter the Lyles; an odd mother and her son Eric. They offer Port a ride in their car to Boussif, leaving Kit and Tunner to take the train where Kit surrenders to Tunner’s sexual advances. At Boussif Port and Kit stop to be alone and have personal moment on the top of a ridge in order to get closer to each other, and to solve their marital difficulties. From Boussif, the three Americans make their way to Ain Krorfa, the dirty town. At this period, Port tries to get rid of Tunner and arranges for him to go with the Lyles to Messad.
Meanwhile, the Moresbys go to the small town in Algeria, Bou Noura, where Port discovers that his passport is missing. Lieutenant D’Armagnac who is the commander of the local military post, finds that Port’s passport has been sold in Messad and arranges for Tunner to return to Bou Noura with it. However, Port over comes by fever and insists to Kit to leave for El Ga’a. 13 The Moresbys go to El Ga’a, the hidden desert town where no one could tell them anything. Port falls ill with typhoid and can’t even walk.
During this time, Kit finds out that a meningitis epidemic has shut down the only hotel of town. Kit stays with Port in a small room that serves as infirmary for the French soldiers in Sba. At this moment in the desert, Port is suffering from a fatal fever and imagining himself destroyed by a large car: he sets bleeding in the doorway of a candy shop until he awakes to run away from an attacker who is coming to step into his bowels. Kit is unable to help Port and sneaks into the night to meet Tunner who is arriving from Bou Noura. That night, Port dies. After the death of Port, Kit wanders in the Sahara and is picked up by a travelling caravan.
She becomes the lover of Belqassim who marries her and imprisons her in his house where she turns into a sexual victim by the young Belqassim and an old companion. Kit is later dressed as an Arab boy in order to trick Belqassim’s wives. Kit spends the majority of her time sleeping in a dark room using sleep in order to remain mindlessly content. After a while, the wives discover that Kit is a girl and hit her badly, but later help her to escape from Belqassim. Eventually, Kit is saved and brought to Oran where Tunner is waiting for her, but by now she has fallen into madness.
The novel ends with Kit wandering into the streets towards an unknown destiny. 14 The main characters in The Sheltering Sky ; Kit and Port, are describing themselves as Travellers and not Tourists. They consider the Tourist as someone who hurries back home at the end of a few weeks, while the Traveller may not come back at all. Another difference between the Traveller and the Tourist is their particular thoughts of their culture. That means that the Tourist accept his own culture without question, while the Traveller compares it with the Other and refuses those elements he does not like. There is a connection between Bowles and Port : Bowles has always tried to escape from the damages caused by the war and Port also hopes to find inspiration in the Sahara.
Moreover, the marital problems and secrets between Port and Kit simulate those between Paul and Jane. Bowles himself considers The Sheltering Sky as an autobiographical novel from memory. He also wrote the greatest part of the story while travelling through the Sahara. On the other hand, the Sahara is described in The Sheltering Sky as a trick, a strange landscape that has the power to destroy the Western Traveller who comes to it unprepared. The Sahara is also represented in the novel as a dry landscape where there is nothing to protect man except the shining sky ( Bowles. 1978: 251 ).
Furthermore, the North African desert seduces Port and Kit who want to explore life outside the limits of Western choking morality, culture and social conventions. The Sahara provides an appropriate area for the essential self-examination that Bowles’s Western characters show themselves to it ( Bowles. 1978: 101 ). The Sahara also shows that there is neither protection nor security anywhere 15 because happiness and security have been destroyed by the Second World War. Much of the suffering of Port’s fate is caused by his failure to determine the results of his own actions. Firstly, Port is seduced by a beautiful Arab prostitute named Marhnia who tells him the sad story of the three dancers: Outka, Mimouna and Aicha who where in love with a handsome Targui, and went to drink tea with him in the Sahara but eventually died.
Another example of Port’s experiences is his try to have sex with a blind Arab girl. These experiences almost lead to his death. This is linked to port’s attitude which is not based on love and stability, but on a narcissistic desire of forbidden experiences ( Bowles. 1978: 28 ). Secondly, Kit like Port’s observation of natives is ambiguous. She either meets dirty natives or beautiful ones.
On her journey, Kit feels excited and fascinated by the natives of the Sahara especially those who are feminised by their use of Kohl and Veils and who are linked with the Oriental woman. Kit later becomes isolated, she is no more fascinated by Tunner or attached to Port. Kit also becomes liberated when Port dies and is free to go her own way towards her fated oblivion. Kit’s fate leads to the alienation of emotional fantasy that the Sahara has long inspired. Port dies because he came to understand himself and Others but has nothing to learn, and Kit begins her learning through a journey full of distress and suffering. The Moresbys destiny is tragic.
The couple is a paradox, it appears at the same time as a symbolic couple in which each member is dependent on the other ( Bowles. 1978: 100 ). Kit’s attitude towards life is completely opposed to that of Port. She is simply terrified 16 by the silence and emptiness that deeply touch Port ( Bowles. 1978: 100 ). Generally, The Sheltering Sky explains the meeting of the two different cultures which are: the modern logical Western way of life and the eternal sensual and savage Saharan one.
It is also about the negative effect of the Oriental Islamic culture on Port and Kit. Port for instance goes by an old Arab is captured by an idea that the man is affected by an infection disease. On the other part, Kit is also caught by two native figures ; Belqassim and Amar, who has the same desire and who use her sexually. Since this Alien world is full of violence whose people are animals and not human beings, Kit raped without mercy in the presence of Belqassim and his partner. 17
