Essay: Summarizing Pico Iyer's 'Nowhere Man' for English Assignment

Pico Iyer's "Nowhere Man" explores the theme of depersonalization and lack of connectivity in younger generations due to increased mobility. The author, a seasoned traveler from a young age, identifies as a "transit lounger," feeling like a visitor even at home. He notes the homogenizing effect of globalization, where places worldwide offer similar amenities, leading to a sense of both familiarity and strangeness. While this mobile lifestyle offers freedom and dispassion, it also presents challenges in forming deep connections and maintaining a sense of rootedness. Iyer uses the example of Salman Rushdie to illustrate the potential loss of national identity. He observes that airports are unique spaces for public displays of emotion but admits to feeling neither excitement nor sadness during his travels, highlighting the detachment experienced by transit loungers who are increasingly disconnected from traditional concepts of home and belonging.

Running Head: SUMMARY OF “NOWHERE MAN”
Summary of “Nowhere Man”

SUMMARY OF “NOWHERE MAN” 1
Summary of “Nowhere Man”
The article “Nowhere Man” has been written by Pico Iyer which arounds the basic idea that the
family is not as important as it is thought to be. The intention of the author behind the article is to
portray the increased depersonalization in the younger generations along with the lack of
connectivity between self and home, and self and others.
The author became used to travelling alone from the age of nine and became familiar with it by
the time he entered the teenage. The author further believed that feeling of having the close
friends on the other side of the continent or sea at the time of his parent’s youth as these facts and
facilities were not developed at their time. He considered himself as the example of new breed of
people who are transit loungers and therefore regarded himself as a visitor even in his own home.
The author also described his feeling of strangeness and familiarity with diffident parts of the
world through the quote, “All have Holiday Inns, direct-dial phones, CNN, and DHL. All have
sushi, Thai restaurants, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.” He further demonstrated the pros and cons
of living a mobile, unrooted and international life. Being a transit lounger, the author is able to
visit any place for a holiday in order to find his roots.
“Seasoned experts at dispassion, we are less good at involvement, or suspension of belief; at, in
fact, the abolition of distance. We are masters of the aerial perspective, but touching down
becomes more difficult.” The author also had an omniscient point of view and provides that it is
very challenging for him to connect with others. The author also gave the example of Salman
Rushdie who forgot how it feels like being rooted in a single country as he juggled home for a
long time. In this way, the transit loungers are also not accountable to anyone and any law
outside their own country. Furthermore, they have unprecedented sense of mobility and freedom.
These transit wanderers experience non- affiliation with the joys of being with the family.
The author regards airports as the only site in public life where emotions are hugely sanctioned.
There are a number of people who shout and weep at the airport and also there are some who are
at the edges of exhaustion and excitement. “But there are some of us, perhaps, sitting at the
departure gate, boarding passes in hand, who feel neither the pain of separation nor the exultation
of wonder”, here the author explains that he suffers from the same emotions every time and is
neither exhausted or excited (Iyer, 1997).

SUMMARY OF “NOWHERE MAN” 2
Therefore, it can be concluded that the life of the transit loungers is very different as they have to
travel on constant basis and are separated from their family. They do not have a place which can
be formally called their home.

SUMMARY OF “NOWHERE MAN” 3
Reference
Iyer, P. (1997). Nowhere man: Confessions of a perpetual foreigner.