The Sheltering Sky discussion

Looking back over my previous post, I think I may have failed to convey what makes this story so moving. This post, too, contains spoilers.
First, I would like to mention a few more clues. As Port is impatiently listening to the tea in the Sahara story, the reader is told that he had no idea whether the tale was a humorous one or a tragic one. After Port dies, Tunner wonders what their friends back home will think. He decides that some will see the entire episode as romantic, and tragic only in passing.
The use of the word tragic in these two passages are clues that the story is intended to be tragedy.
When 'Smail introduces himself to Port, he says, "Me 'Smail." The narrator of Moby Dick, I believe, introduces himself to the reader with these words, "Call me Ishmael." As 'Smail leads Port to Marhnia, they pause for a moment, and Port asks 'Smail where they are going. 'Smail points to a faint red glimmer by the tent where Marhnia is. It's not Daisy's green light that beckons to Gatsby, but I think that Bowles intends for the reader to make that connection. Many consider Gatsby and Moby Dick to be modern, or more contemporary tragedies.
I wrote about the link between Port and Prometheus in my other post. There are two key differences between the two that bear mentioning. While Prometheus suffers terribly as he is chained to the earth, he is in possession of information of some value to Zeus. Thus, he is reassured that Zeus will not destroy him. Port does not have that protection.
Prometheus is aware that Zeus is his punisher. What I find so touching about The Sheltering Sky is that Port, while his mission is to challenge Zeus so that Zeus will punish him, is not certain that Zeus, nor any god, exists. Each time he looks up to the sky--- and he looks up at the sky a lot--- he is hoping for some sign that there is a just god who will dispense justice. By the time that he sees the blind dancer, he is becoming somewhat desperate for proof of that existence.

Mike wrote: "Looking back over my previous post, I think I may have failed to convey what makes this story so moving. This post, too, contains spoilers.
First, I would like to mention a few more clues. As Port..."

You lost me a bit on this one, Mike ... I'm intrigued by the parallels you drew earlier between Port and Prometheus, but here you throw in Moby Dick and Gatsby as well. Is this really what Bowles was thinking?

Stephen,
I can't say for certain what Bowles was thinking, but I think
that he gives us a number of inter-textual links that serve as
clues to his intent. "Me 'Smail" and "Call me Ishmael" seem pretty similar to me, enough so that they may be considered
intentional on Bowles' part.
As for the Gatsby clue, it is less obvious, but Bowles makes
us work for this story. How many readers, for example, would
connect the bit about slicing the tendons longitudinally as Port
is dying and the battle between Zeus and Typhoeus?
It seems to me that most readers identify The Sheltering Sky
as realism. I believe that the Gatsby and Moby Dick clues here
are used to tell us that the story is tragedy. I don't think that they
provide us, as far as I can tell, with essential specific details.

Mike,
Very interesting ... have you done a search in the bibliographies of any literary journals or lit research papers to see who else out there might be talking about this? I would bet there are others who have made the same connections.

Stephen,
I haven't looked at bibliographies. Mostly, I have looked at
Amazon reviews, and these Goodreads comments.
I would like to say a little more about Gatsby and The
Sheltering Sky. Whether the faint, red light near the tent where
Marhnia is actually is intended to make the reader think of the
green light near Daisy's mansion or not, the two books share one
important theme, and that is lost innocence. Bowles expresses
this through Port's dream in which he decides that he would
suffer all of life's pains again if he could smell the earth the way
that it smelled when he was young.
In Gatsby, Fitzgerald writes one of the most beautiful passages that I have ever read "He knew that when he kissed this
girl, and forever wed his unutterable vision to her perishable
breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God."