“Every Trip’s a Quest (Except When It’s Not)”
In How to Read Literature Like a Professor’s, “Every Trip is a Quest (Except When it’s Not),” by Thomas C. Foster, Foster acknowledges that in literature, a character may commence a rather boring trip with no symbolic direction, but he or she is most likely on their way to embark a quest. This quest usually proceeds with the character performing a general task, unaware of the real purpose of the journey. The bottom line is, the stated endeavor is not the purpose of the trip. “The real reason for quest is always self-knowledge” (Foster 3). This begins to become more apparent as the novel advances and the character speculates the task, and then all elements of the task are gone as new clues come in as the character goes through his or her journey. The real purpose of the journey becomes more obvious, as the character gains more self-knowledge. The character makes a remarkable discovery during this journey. This can either be when the …show more content…
From this structure of finding a quest, it can be inferred that Janie is on a quest in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. After her grandma caught her in a liplock with young boy Johnny. After that point, she got married to three men determined to find her true love inspired by the blossoms from the pear tree. Janie is the mortician of the quest; to simply find the love of her life. She first got married to a young boy, Logan Killicks, due to her grandma’s orders. She didn’t feel any chemistry between them, and ended up running away with Joe, who she thought would be the love of her life. But even then their relationship took a twist, and she lost feelings for him as well, and he ended up passing away. Finally she met a man, Tea Cake, that she was unsure about in the beginning. But their relationship grew, and she felt the the romance she associated with the pollination of pear tree blossoms. She eventually came back to her hometown after she killed her first
In How to Read Literature Like a Professor’s, “Every Trip is a Quest (Except When it’s Not),” by Thomas C. Foster, Foster acknowledges that in literature, a character may commence a rather boring trip with no symbolic direction, but he or she is most likely on their way to embark a quest. This quest usually proceeds with the character performing a general task, unaware of the real purpose of the journey. The bottom line is, the stated endeavor is not the purpose of the trip. “The real reason for quest is always self-knowledge” (Foster 3). This begins to become more apparent as the novel advances and the character speculates the task, and then all elements of the task are gone as new clues come in as the character goes through his or her journey. The real purpose of the journey becomes more obvious, as the character gains more self-knowledge. The character makes a remarkable discovery during this journey. This can either be when the …show more content…
From this structure of finding a quest, it can be inferred that Janie is on a quest in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. After her grandma caught her in a liplock with young boy Johnny. After that point, she got married to three men determined to find her true love inspired by the blossoms from the pear tree. Janie is the mortician of the quest; to simply find the love of her life. She first got married to a young boy, Logan Killicks, due to her grandma’s orders. She didn’t feel any chemistry between them, and ended up running away with Joe, who she thought would be the love of her life. But even then their relationship took a twist, and she lost feelings for him as well, and he ended up passing away. Finally she met a man, Tea Cake, that she was unsure about in the beginning. But their relationship grew, and she felt the the romance she associated with the pollination of pear tree blossoms. She eventually came back to her hometown after she killed her first