Interpretation of “A Distant Episode”

In Paul Bowle’s peculiar story “A Distant Episode,” he uses vivid detail and imagery to tell his story. Throughout the entire story, the detail that struck me most was when the author first described the west. “The west…smelled of other things besides the endless ozone of the heights: orange blossoms, pepper, sun-baked excrement, burning olive oil, rotten fruit.” These sensory details help the reader understand the protagonist’s journey from one area to another. Since the details are from the middle of his journey they illustrate the good—orange blossoms, pepper, gradating to the bad—sun-baked excrement, burning olive oil, rotten fruit, which seems to foreshadow the direction of the story.

StateSymbolsUSA.org

            In this story the concept of "the other” is strongly addressed.  In this case “the other” is the professor. To illustrate the theme of “the other,” imagery, language, and culture are utilized. For instance, it is made very clear on the professor’s trip to get a Camel Udder Box that the professor didn’t have any clue about the terrain of the area. To further illustrate the professor as “the other,” the author included a conversation between the professor and his guide, in which, he says, “Everyone knows you… I wish everyone knew me,” which clearly demonstrates the professor being alienated from everyone and thus “the other.”

            Throughout the story, the landscape clearly foreshadows the professor’s decline. Specifically, the further the professor ventures into the dark—the unknown, and harsher terrain the more animal like and disoriented he becomes until he finally is assaulted, and taken into slavery.

Travel-Images.com 

            On a personal level, I have not had an experience similar to the professor in the beginning of the story but I have gone on a somewhat similar journey. This summer I spent a half a week in Venice, Italy. I arrived around 11:00pm and immediately searched for my hostel. Since there are hardly any street signs in Venice this was a difficult task. After asking numerous people and getting contradicting directions I wandered down a dark alley and found the address. However, I had misread the directions. I actually had to go to a restaurant where the hostel owner worked to check in. So I once again wandered around the dimly lit streets of Venice. Eventually, I found the right place and was escorted by two large men to the hotel. While on the way there I began to question on whether or not these guys were associated with the hostel and where they were taking me. For a brief moment I panicked inside my head while we went down a dark ally way and into a sparsely labeled building. But once I found out they were legitimate I felt a sense of relief. Although the outcome was worlds away from the outcome in “A Distant Episode,” I feel that I can relate to the Professors sense of anxiety when he doesn’t know where he is being led or what might happen.