McClain 2
Jane McClain
Ms. Jane McClain
English 1101-03
05 June 2007
Chapter 1: “Every trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)”
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Foster’s Argument:
· Whenever a literary character embarks on a journey, even if only to the neighborhood store, a quest is going to happen. Consideration of the text as a quest narrative can aid in interpreting the text. The protagonist (the knight) will encounter his nemesis (the nemesis may be a person or a concept—the instigator of the conflict).
Components of a traditional quest:
§ A knight
§ A dangerous road
§ A Holy Grail
§ At least one dragon
§ At least one evil knight
§ One princess
Contemporary Literary Structure
§ A) a quester
§ B) a place to go
§ C) a stated reason to go there
§ D) challenges and trials en route
§ E) a real reason to go there
· The contemporary literary structure of a quest consists of A) a quester is just a person going on a quest, whether or not he or she knows it’s a quest. B) and C) should be considered together; someone tells our protagonist, our hero, who need not look very heroic, to go somewhere and do something, or he (or she) decides that he must go do something to prove himself. Go in search of the Holy Grail. Go in search of the perfect gift for his princess (or her prince). A trip to the market for a loaf of bread may not seem as noble as a searching for the Holy Grail, but structurally they are the same. Go there. Do that. E) the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge, which is why questers are so often young, inexperienced, immature, and sheltered.
· Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (1965):
o The Quester: an unhappy young woman in an unhappy marriage—not too old to learn, not too assertive where men are concerned.
o A place to go: she must drive from her home near San Francisco to Southern California. Eventually she will travel back and forth between the two and between her past (disturbed husband) and her future (unclear).
o Stated reason to go there: she has been made the executor of the will of her wealthy former lover.
o Challenges and trials: she meets many strange, scary, and dangerous people, including her therapist who she tries to talk out of a psychotic shooting rampage while she is in his office (dangerous enclosure known in the study of traditional quest romances as “Chapel Perilous.”
o The real reason to go: her resources, her crutches—and they all happen to be male—are stripped away one by one forcing her to either break down or learn to rely on herself. She basically acquires self-knowledge. As her self-awareness grows, the stated reason for the quest becomes less important.
§ Other well-known quest narratives: Huck Finn, The Lord of the Rings, North by Northwest, and Star Wars.
§ “Always” and “never” are not words that have much meaning in literary study. Every quest narrative will not “always” contain every element described earlier. Authors use the conventions of literature to both create expectations in readers and thwart expectations. At the same time, authors constantly search for innovative ways of writing. An author may use only the elements of a quest narrative that prove useful.
§ Not every trip is a quest. Sometimes plot requires that a writer get a character from home to work and back again. However, once a character hits the road, we should pay attention.
§ Once you figure out quests, the rest is easy.
Other examples of quest narratives:
The Odysseyby Homer / Scrubs episode “My Way Home”
“A & P”
by John Updike / Jarhead
by Anthony Swofford
“Araby”
by James Joyce / Little Miss Sunshine
directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Little Miss Sunshine
Movie poster
What is the stated reason for the trip? What is the real reason?