Can you name some short stories that have traveling as a major element?

Question

Hello, I am teaching a first-year comp. class with literature, and I am using the theme of traveling as a way of self-discovery. The novels that I have chosen are A ROOM WITH A VIEW and THE ROAD (I got rid of TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY since students tended to not like it as much as I did). Anyway, I am trying to think of some short stories to round up, and the only one that is popping into my head right now is "Young Goodman Brown". Oh, and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky". Please suggest as many as you can so that I will have a varied lot to choose from. If the class were longer than a semester, I would have added good ol' "Huck" to the mix.

Oh, and the short stories should have some literary merit, i.e., classics.

Thanks.

Oh, these are college students I am talking about.

Answer 1

Hills Like White Elephants, The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The Road is an excellent selection. So is Young Goodman Brown. What about Open Boat instead of The Bride?

Pax - C

Answer 2

This is a series a would deffinately recommend it for teens ... there are a lot of them so u can split them up per nineweeks.. the books are about king Arthur girls and guys both will i assure u love these books...
1. The Squire's Tale (1998)
aka Squire Terence and the Maiden's Knight
2. The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady (1999)
3. The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (2000)
4. Parsifal's Page (2001)
5. The Ballad of Sir Dinadan (2003)
6. The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight (2004)
aka Lady Sarah and the Dung-cart Knight
7. The Lioness and Her Knight (2005)
8. The Quest of the Fair Unknown (2006)

Answer 3

1) Heart of Darkness
2) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence by Robert Pirsig, I think it is...
3) Moby Dick
4) The Sheltering Sky
5) anything by Pearl S. Buck
6) Roots?
7) The Painted Veil
8) Don Quixote
9) There are many others, let me sleep on it and get back to you...
10) Anything w/ a "quest" theme...what about Star Wars or Dr. Who, or The Mists of Avalon so that the feminist view point is well represented? One of my favorite current short novels is The Last Days of Dogtown by Diamant. One of the best senses of "place" I've ever read and I do believe it does fit in w/ the idea of travel and of journeying both to find and escape the self (and others).
11) The Pilot's Wife by Shreve
12) The Road Not Taken by Frost...?

Answer 4

Have you considered "Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes." (1879) by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Although not exactly short stories, this account of a 12 day, 120 mile journey, through South Central France, divides naturally into discrete daily doses that are very similar to a succession of short stories on a common theme.

It is considered to be a classic of outdoor literature presenting hiking and camping (We would now call it backpacking.), for the first time, as a recreational activity.
It is extremely well written and it is also very funny.

If you tell your students it was written by the same bloke who wrote "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped" it might stimulate their curiosity.

I hope this is of some use.

Answer 5

It's not easy to think of short stories in which traveling, rather than an incident in a foreign country, defines the story. Is London's "To Build a Fire" traveling? There's Kipling's "My Own True Ghost Story," which kids would like. "Heart of Darkness" is too long, isn't it? What about Hubbard's "A Message to Garcia." Is it a classic? Kafka's "A Message from the Emperor" is about a trip that never takes place.

Good question!

Answer 6

The Accidental Tourist

Answer 7

I have read that there are only two kinds of stories: "The Protagonist Makes a Journey" and "The Stranger Comes to Town." The point of what I read was that in the 18th and 19th centuries, women authors tended to write about the latter, because that was their experience.

Answer 8

Banana republic is a pejorative term for a small, often Latin American, Caribbean or African country that is politically unstable, dependent on limited agriculture, and ruled by a small, self-elected, wealthy and corrupt clique.[citation needed] In most cases they have kept the government structures that were modeled after the colonial Spanish ruling clique, with a small, largely leisure class on the top and a large, poorly educated and poorly paid working class of peons. The term was coined by O. Henry, an American humorist and short story writer, in reference to Honduras. "Republic" in his time was often a euphemism for a dictatorship, while "banana" implied an easy reliance on basic agriculture and backwardness in the development of modern industrial technology. Frequently the subject of mockery and humour, and usually presided over by a dictatorial military junta that exaggerates its own power and importance—"the epaulettes of a banana republic generalissimo" are proverbially of considerable size, usually portrayed in satire with a pair of mops—a banana republic also typically has large wealth and income inequities, poor infrastructure, poor schools, a backward economy, low capital spending, a reliance on foreign capital and money printing, budget deficits, and a weakening currency. Banana republics are typically also highly prone to revolutions and coups.

Answer 9

road virus heads north.