Deconstruction of "Why we travel" by Pico Iyer

The article “Why We Travel” by Pico Iyer is an upbeat article that could possibly interest and relate to a number of readers. The issue then when deconstructing an article like this is whether to view and critique it upon its effectiveness for the intended reader or in a more holistic view. Iyer manages to write smoothly and flows nicely from thought to thought, but many of his ideas are somewhat questionable.

            Iyer begins the article discussing reasons for traveling. He immediately makes some large generalizations about why people travel, and leaves out many other important reasons people may be traveling. Right off the bat he assumes the readers are traveling for pleasure, new experiences, or some other reason or form of personal gain. He generally excludes people who are traveling for work opportunities, being forced to leave their country due to political or environmental reasons, people traveling for humanitarian work, and countless other causes. Iyer then goes on and makes more assumptions on the emotions that pass through people during, and following, trips to exotic new locations. While many of his words evoke emotions and memories that a reader may closely relate to, and perfectly match the emotions that they experienced on a trip they took, many of these assumptions depend on the life that the traveler is leaving behind. In one passage Iyer states, “We travel, then, in part just to shake up our complacencies by seeing all the moral and political urgencies, the life-and-death dilemmas, that we seldom have to face at home.” Obviously there is a large population of people, the intended audience for this article, that don’t experience these things at home, but a huge portion of our world does, and some of those people still travel. Later in the article Iyer again states the assumption that the people who travel are leaving homes free of turmoil and poverty when he states “…holidays help you appreciate your own home more...” Iyer does have good moments as well though. He does a fantastic job of painting the picture of what he experienced in your head, and presents many ideas about different destinations that could help a traveler to better experience and assimilate themselves into a new culture.

            Another cultural assumption that Iyer makes continuously throughout the article is the belief that all other cultures are interested in his own. While it may be true that in China “…people will pay a whole week’s worth wages to eat with Colonel Sanders…” Iyer does not acknowledge the other groups of people that may resent the presence of American fast food chains like Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds taking up residence in their towns, cities, and nations. Iyer also discusses how when he travels, as an American, he is put in a tough position because of encountering people who hold an unrealistic dream of what The United States are like. Iyer makes the assumption that all people in foreign countries dream of the wonderful land that is America, and that is an untrue generalization of different people around the world. Iyer comes off as almost arrogant as he seems to set his own culture as superior to those around him.

            While looking at an article like this in higher terms can leave you with certain uncomplimentary thoughts about some of Iyers thoughts and statements, you do need to take into account that the article was written for a very particular audience, and that Iyer probably meant no harm in some of his broader assumptions. He pulls together many of his thoughts toward the end of the piece and gets back to some of his better ideas about travel. He gravitates back toward the idea that traveling, for whatever reason, “…is just a quick way to keeping our minds mobile and awake,” and ends the article on a happy note about how travel can affect people, for the better, in many different ways.