Teresita's Quest: An Analysis

The American dream is an example of a national spirit that represents different ideologies. The set of ideas may be of democracy, equality matters, liberty, rights, and opportunities. The American dream believes in freedom for prosperity and success for its citizens. The idea suggests that upward social mobility for individuals can be achieved only through hard work. In a story done by George Saunders, the American dream is exemplified in several instances. The author, George, tells the story of contemporary America through a diary. The main character in the story is a father to three daughters. The family’s struggles are examples of how individuals will go extra miles just to provide for their families and also

2. A gathering around a meal often represents an act of communion. People come together to share thought, ideas, and conflicts. In “The Poisonwood Bible”, a particular scene occurs when there is a dinner at the church. The feeling around the dinner table was a sense of belonging and agreement, which matches up well with “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” view of a meal. As the meal proceeds, Kingsolver notes “He is Congolese all right, But he has different kind of eyes that slant a little bit like a Siamese” (Kingsolver 125). This

In the trilogy Oresteia, the issues concerned are the transformation from vengeance to law, from chaos to peace, from dependence to independence, and from old to new. These four significant changes all take place throughout the play and are somewhat parallel to the transformations that were going on in Ancient Greece.

Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cat Woman; when you hear the word hero or heroine that is who you think of. The most famous heroes of all time, as well as the not so famous heroes such as Hazel, fit the archetype of a hero; they are all courageous, resourceful, and strong-willed. Most people don’t notice that almost all action/adventure movies and novels are the same. All of their stories fit the archetypal pattern of a heroic quest. A heroic quest consists of twelve steps that the hero completes throughout his or her journey. In this essay, I will be explaining the parallels between Watership Down by Richard Adams and the archetypal pattern of a heroic quest; as well as the parallels between

Castiglione's The Courtier presents a set of female and male indications for being ideal or well-rounded persons, spread across four books of what was to become a Renaissance-specific manual for achieving the human etiquette ideal. A parallel is to be traced between these precepts that were drawn five centuries ago, and the current situation.

The “Hummingbird’s Daughter” by Luis Alberto Urrea proved to be a novel full of Mexican culture and identity, focusing on such intricate detail all the way through. One character in particular, Don Tomas Urrea who is the father of Teresita, plays a very important role throughout the book being a father, for Teresita, a friend for some, and a ‘patron’ for most. Although at the start of the book this man is not fairly distinguished, reading deeper into the novel the reader is slowly hooked to how humble and courageous Don Tomas can be. Being the head of the family a lot is expected of Don Tomas, he has to be fierce in front of his men, at the same time a good leader for his workers, and eventually up to the point of playing the role of a father to his unexpected daughter Teresita.

A quest in a book consists of five aspects. A quester, a place to go, a reason to go there, challenges and trials, and a real reason to go there. Eragon, by Christopher Paolini, is a book that consists of all five aspects of a quest. Eragon is the quester in this novel. He lives a simple life, farming with his uncle and cousin. The place he goes is out of Carvahall, because he is running away from monstrous villains that want to find him and the dragon egg Eragon hatched. Eragon will travel through almost all of the country Alagaesia throughout his journey. The intended reason for Eragon to travel through Alagaesia is to avenge the monsters that killed his uncle Garrow. Eragon has to go through many challenges and trials before he finally avenges

From this chapter, In learned that the truth behind all quests is to find self-knowledge. Most of the time, the people on the quest are young and inexperienced, but by the end of their adventure, they’ve found their niche, and completed their mission. There is always a quester, a place to go, a reason to go, challenges and trials en route, and the real reason to go.

1-3. The main idea of Chapter 1 Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) (pp.1-6) can be concluded in the following sentence: every story is a quest that consists of a person that has a reason to go to a certain place with challenges on one’s way which then leads the particular person (usually the main hero of a story) to the actual, or real, reason associated with self-knowledge, because the quest is always educational.

-Every time a character sets out to do something it's a quest. The idea of a quest has evolved greatly, as literature has evolved.

The use of a journey narrative as both an archetypal plot device, and a technique that facilitates and informs character development, is an enduring literary trope, likely as old as literature itself. The mere fact that journey narratives have persisted in literature, without inherently being regarded as overused, outdated, or clichéd, is indicative of the impact and influence this technique has when executed effectively. Additionally, this is testament to its adaptability, and capacity to complement and integrate within various styles and genres. Conventional journey narratives often follow a basic structure, contributing to reader expectation that a vast, far-reaching journey should be inherently reflected by vast emotional progress, and

Lastly, he lectures about the real reason of the quests rather than the stated reason; regardless of the initial reason, there is always an underlined reason, which Foster states as self-knowledge. This real reason explains why so many protagonists are young and inexperienced, for they have “a long way to go in the self-knowledge department” (Foster 3). Foster introduces an example of an unlikely quest: Thomas Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49. The quester in Crying of Lot 49 is a young woman that is stuck in an unhappy marriage and is easily dominated by the men in her life. The destination is Southern California, however she also journeys toward an uncertain future. Her stated reason to go to Southern California, far from her home in San Francisco, is that she has been made the executor of the will for her deceased lover. She goes through numerous trials which include meeting many eccentric and chilling people, taking nightlong voyages through San Francisco, talking psychotic therapists out of shooting rampages, and involving herself in a postal conspiracy. Lastly, Foster tells us the real reason the character, Oedipa Maas, is on a quest. Oedipa is named after a character in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, who doesn’t truly realize himself. The great challenge for Oedipa is that her security blankets, the males in her life, are gradually proven to be fake or unreliable. She is given the choice to either break down or forge on, regardless of the

Daughters of the dust revolves around an early 20th century African American family from Ibo Landing which is a time not shy of racism and slavery, especially in middle America. The scene depicted in the movie where a young girl is running through the forest in an all-white dress with a blue ribbon who seems to be being followed by a man in a hide and seek manor. The young girl disappears and the man stumbles upon a plot of land that is a graveyard, with headstones made from wooden planks, the man observes his surroundings. Presumably, this girl in white is the young voice narrating the next scene which pans through steam over to a flash back of the ancestors who were slaves. We look across a field of men and women who are working over these steaming wells, as well as the people in the background hanging soaked sheets up to dry. We see these people mixing over a steaming hole in the ground scraping around a grey paste. The workers then begin to pull the paste out of the steaming pits and scrape it into wooden molds. They appear to be making cement blocks as a young boy watches and older man collect all the wooden brick molds and systematically knocks the brick from the mold and piles them orderly on both his left as well as his right. While doing so he sings an old hymn, the boy seems to enjoy watching this process. Throughout the entire scene, there is a narration of a girl which speaks

In the first chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, every trip a protagonist takes becomes a quest in the story. These quests often entail a Quester (the protagonist), a specific place to go, a reason to go to a said place, obstacles, and challenges on the way, and the Quester’s real reason to go to said place. Whatever is gained from this quest can vary from unlimited wealth to a whole lot of nothing, but the Quester seems to always be guaranteed to receive one thing: self-knowledge. In chapter 2, Foster emphasizes the point that whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion. Basic survival states that people need food to be able to live.

The “hero’s journey”, coined by Joseph Campbell, is a pattern in the plot structure of literature, myths, and oral tradition in which the hero is consistently faced with similar obstacles and achieves many of the same goals. The first part of the hero’s journey is “The Call.” The hero is usually living a very comfortable and easy life, unaware of the journey ahead. The hero is then faced with a situation or dilemma which eventually causes them to seek change. The hero, at this point, tends to refuse the call to adventure in fear of the unknown. Once the hero has been given the strength to push past the unknown, they have entered the threshold. The hero will experience many challenges and temptations where the hero is tested, eventually reaching “The Abyss,” the most difficult challenge. The hero is then transformed by these trials and returns home to every-day life and begins to contribute to their society. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, experiences the hero’s journey first-hand through overcoming obstacles and transforming herself. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the heroine Janie overcomes many obstacles and is therefore transformed into a self reliant woman.