As part of my English Literature class we were assigned to watch the movie A Room with a View. Even though anyone would think that sitting and watching the movie without further analysis would be more than enough, that was not the purpose. The main idea was to watch the movie in the resemblance of the difference between a traveler and a tourist.
A Room with a View is a film based on E. M. Forster's (here's a cool link with really nice E. M. Forster's quotes) novel of the same name. The movie takes place during the early 1900's. It shows the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a young woman from England, whom visits Florence for the first time. She meets there a young man named George Emerson; a quiet unconventional guy for whom she begins to feel a growing attraction. When Lucy returns to England she has to make a choice between continuing with her marriage plans with her fiancé or following her heart and her developing feelings for George.
If we go around asking people to identify a possible difference between a traveler and a tourist, a great majority of the people would not be able to do it. To me there is a clear distinction between the two and part of it would be easy to describe focusing on the first part of the movie I was assigned to watch.
In my opinion a tourist is someone who visits a place largely driven by the promotion and publicity that a certain place gets throughout the world. These people visit a limited number of places and/or places that are readily prepared to receive tourists. Thus, this shows how tourists become related to a certain atmosphere that is created for them to feel comfortable and like home. I believe that a key aspect that makes a tourist is the fact that they go through a certain place without really taking the time of analyzing the culture, the problems, the costumes, the reality of the people that live there. Tourists only relate to a certain group of people that are trained to build an environment thats pleasurable for those visitors. To me Lucy represents the tourist character. At the beginning of the movie Lucy Honeychurch clearly states that she was a tourist in Italy so that confirms the evaluation we may do to her character. She doesn't merge within the culture. During the beginning of the movie it is clearly observable that she's an outsider in Italy. As a tourist she travels with her culture and costumes and that is seen through the character of her chaperone, whom is constantly repressing Lucy's freedom. On the other hand, a traveler distinguishes himself because he travels for the pleasure of knowledge and understanding. The destination that he or she chooses is based not on the publicity but rather it is based on the less talked about places and features of it. A traveler merges in between the people of the places he travels and becomes one of them. To me a traveler is someone who goes all around different places developing his/her own culture as a mixture of everything that he has gathered along his journey. In the movie I would consider George the traveler. He is the one in the movie who shows a great amount of concern for what happens around him to the people of Italy. He is the one who evaluates different points of view, enriching himself with all the experiences he lives. What is left to think of is if we go around the world in the role of tourists or travelers?
I agree with you when you say that Lucy was a tourist but I think it was more because of the restrictions she has with her chaperone. I could perceive that sometimes she was wiling to be more like a traveler but was not allowed. This can be seen when she goes to the city and tries to experience it by her own not going were everyone else does. It is there were she faces part of the reality of the place she is visiting when a man gets killed in front of her.
ReplyDeleteI like the way in which you describe what a tourist is. When you say "a key aspect that makes a tourist is the fact that they go through a certain place without really taking the time of analyzing the culture, the problems, the costumes, the reality of the people that live there" that is exactly the same way I think. When people are been tourist, which means that they are at a new place for them, they only focus on anything that involve not reasoning. That's why they don't take time to really analyze things out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that there is a distinct definition of a traveler and a tourist. I think that the traveler is more interested in the reality of the visiting country and the tourist is merely interested by the publicity it has seen. But, I think Lucy really tried to be a traveler also. She tried to go out of her way to find her own idea of Italy, even though she was restricted by her cousin's beliefs and just the society's way of thinking in that time. But, definitely George is the traveler that is excited about everything that the place has to offer, not just the tourist attractions.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about the differences between tourist and traveler. At the beginning of the movie, like you I thought Lucy was a tourist because she described herself as one of them, but at the end I think she was a traveler because she tried to integrate to Italy society, although in a weird manner.
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