Abstract
This thesis, titled Travel to the Threshold , presents a close reading of Graham Greene s The Lawless Roads (1939), an account of a journey he undertook through Mexico in 1938. Greene describes Mexico of the period as troubled with social division, poverty, political corruption and religious suppression. His description of the surrounding environment and the journey involves personal recollections of his childhood juxtaposed with subjective inner consideration and reflection in relation to various encounters in his journey. Underlying exploration of the text is consideration of his at times harsh regard toward the people and the environment in which he is traveling. Overall the thesis regards Greene s travels as both a physical expedition but mainly as a trope for psychological and metaphorical journeying in developing greater understanding of self and the world.
The main focus is to explore, through an analysis of The Lawless Roads, the idea of travel as motivated by individual striving to discover more about self and the world ( Why do we travel? ) and the ways in which travel is physically, metaphorically or symbolically utilized as a tool for this discovery process ( How do we travel? ). The key critical concerns consider how preconceptions, personal views, intertextuality and social and cultural background generally, effect the way one travels and the insight that may be gained from travel. This includes: consideration of how one s view of the other, the border and the unknown effect travel experience; how reflections upon experience and upbringing influence travel choices and direction; how the concept of ethical travel impacts on these ideas; and overall, in light of these concerns, how Greene s account of his Mexican travel experience broadens the concept of what travel represents, and reflects elements of what may be gained from the travelling experience.
Travel may be seen as an innate search for meaning; relentless, ongoing yearnings inherent in human consciousness for understanding and at the same time a movement from innocence to experience. From the pivotal point of the threshold, (the point representing an in-between stage of knowledge of self and the other), the traveler may expand understanding of self and the world through transition into an area of unfamiliarity.
A significant portion of the theoretical consideration of Greene s account of Mexico is discussed in regard to the distinction between the concepts of sedentary and nomadic travel. Sedentary travel is considered in a negative light as inhibiting the traveller s ability to gain insight from his or her travel encounters. Such a traveller carries socially and culturally conditioned preconceptions, prejudices or values that categorize and pigeon-hole experience of the alien or the other, creating a notion of difference and distance that prevents crossing over boundaries to greater understanding of the other. Nomadic travel on the other hand may be seen as a more positive form of travel in terms of gaining insight and generating tolerance within the experience of encounter. The nomadic traveler is open to, in some senses even welcomes, difference, interaction and transformation. Nomadic openness to otherness serves to break down the preconceptions and prejudices symptomatic of social and cultural conditioning, the boundaries that in a sense cage the individual and societies generally. This interpretation suggests that Greene s journey relates to aspects of both these modes of travel.