“Streaming Homeless Through Europe:” Travel and the Traveler as Portrayed in 20^th Century Short Fiction

A victim of the travel bug at a young age and freshly returned stateside after six months in Europe, I continue to find the themes of wanderlust and escapism emerge within my most recent creative work. I am fascinated by the need that man often has to escape his current situation and surroundings, and by how more often than not this need to escape manifests itself in actual physical departure to somewhere unknown, frequently a foreign country. Through the analysis of selections from 20^th century short fiction featuring traveling characters, this paper attempts to examine the ideal of escapist travel as opposed to the reality, and whether or not physical distance can translate into mental distance from whatever problems await back home.