Mary Oliver's The Journey

In Chapter 1 the author explains the symbolic reasoning of why a character takes a trip. They don't just take a trip they take a quest. Structurally a quest has a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a reason to go there. Quests usually involve characters such as a knight, a dangerous road, a Holy Grail, a dragon, an evil knight, and a princess. The quest also involves the character to gain self-knowledge out of taking the adventure to the stated place where he or she is going.

Don't be afraid to take an unfamiliar path, sometimes they’re the ones that take you to the best places. (Jaydee/ google images) Becoming unfamiliar with a place that ones have considered home can be difficult because home is a place blessed, where someone and their family can be secure, and share sadness and happiness. Where individuals can help each other as a family. When individuals such those in “The Return” or “A Marker on the Side of a Boat” get forced out of their homes and the place that ones was familiar to them but later becomes unfamiliar due to the damage and changes. “The Return” by Elie Wiesel and “A Marker on the Side of a Boat” by Bao Ninhin both have an internal conflict that the protagonist experiences as they encounter hopes,

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster presents a guide to help readers further understand the novels they read. In chapter one, he claims that every trip is a quest, and every quest has five main components. Each journey consists of a “quester”, or a journeying character that lacks self-knowledge. This character has a desired destination and a stated purpose of going there. Throughout this journey, the character experiences challenges and obstacles, eventually learning something new about him or her self. Thus, we learn that a simple trip has a deeper meaning and purpose.

Foster breaks down the aspects of a journey to describe the quester, the destination, the stated reason, the challenges, and the real reason. The character who embarks on the journey, also known as the quester, has a defined reason to do so, whether it is to obtain an object, save one from the lurking dangers, or acquire life-saving knowledge. Along their way to reach their destination, they may encounter various challenges such as a physical barrier, a challenger/defender, or a personal obstacle they must face. Through whatever form it takes, these barriers force the quester to challenge their abilities and beliefs, which ultimately leads to them discovering personal knowledge previously unknown about themselves. Though the quester may have accomplished their stated goal of their journey, they return from their voyage often as a changed person as the real reason for their quest was to gain self-knowledge. After they finish their conquest, the quester realizes that the journey was more important than the destination whether they built upon their relationships with another, conquered a personal fear, or gained new found knowledge about themselves, altering their personality and their identity. Foster believes that every trip is a quest, and the quest is a revelation about one’s

The archetype of the journey is seen in Charles Frazier’s novel Cold Mountain, most clearly through experience Inman has wandering back to Cold Mountain. The journey archetype sends the hero in search of some truth to restore order and harmony to the land. The journey often includes the series of trials and tribulations the hero faces along the way. Usually the hero descends into a real or psychological hell and is forced to discover the blackest truths. Once the hero is at his lowest level, he must accept personal responsibility to return to the world of the living. Inman’s trip fits this description very well in some ways and not in others. It could be said that Inman’s search for truth is his desire to be back home. He has been

The definition of a journey is: “A traveling from one place to another, usually taking a rather long time.” (dictionary.com). However, most modern novels have characters that go through emotional or mental journeys that serve as the main plot for their story, thus contradicting the meaning of the word “journey”. In older works of literature such as The Odyssey by Homer and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, it is more common for the protagonists to step into physical journeys that are often made to signify an important lesson or meaning by the end of the novel. Factors such as symbols, themes, and character change plays a role in helping the characters along on their adventures and adds to the connotation of the whole story.

The first tale types that come to mind when I hear of a journey are the Beauty and the Beast types. These tales go into a great amount of detail with the journey about Beauty’s journey to the castle. The transition for Beauty seems scary, and each tale does a decent job of making it sound as if they journey isn’t pleasurable or for fun. In Beauty, the first reference to a journey we see is when the family loses their wealth, and has to journey to the north for a quieter, country-living lifestyle. This journey is long, and is said to have been about a

In a novel, when a character makes a trip it usually becomes to be a quest at one point. “… structurally. The quest consists of five things: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there” (Foster 3). Questers are so often young, inexperienced, immature, and sheltered, that it makes the real reason for the quest, self-knowledge.

“ If there is no struggles, there is no progress.” This famous quote was stated by Frederick Douglas. He was an african american abolitionist, civil rights leader, and social reformer that was born into slavery and faced many hardships in his life but eventually he overcame his difficulties and became a very famous colored man in a world full of slavery. In the book “Hope Was Here”, also several characters face struggles that require inner strength to overcome. Some examples are Braverman, Addie, and Hope. All of them had struggles but still overcame them. My great-grandmother had many obstacles in her life, but she still overcame them.

When speaking of the journey one is speaking of an act in which the mind or the body are going through a vigor of change and an instance of importance. The journey, whether literal or figurative, is a thing that could impact life, reason, and even passion for what one holds dear. Such as a woman realizing that medicine is their calling or a man having a roller coaster of emotions during their daily viewing of their favorite television show, a journey can be anything and at any level of life, but always an instance of importance.

Mary Oliver is an American Poet born in 1935. She first started writing poetry at the age of 14, and has won two awards for her work. Her early influence came from visiting the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay at the age of 17. She is known for her clear observances of the nature within the world in her work. Mary Oliver prefers for her poetry to speak for her and keep to herself; in this regard, many have compared her to Emily Dickinson.

The concept of journeys can vary from person to person; literally a journey is a progression, either physically, mentally or spiritually. Journeys come under five main titles, inner, spiritual, imaginative, emotional and physical. Practically all texts contain one or a combination of these journeys. Les Murray, an Australian poet, has a very strong concept of journeys throughout his poems. Through the use of such techniques as figurative language and film a composer can express their individual concept of journeys.

Why did Columbus travel west? Why did Marco Polo head east? Because it is that pull, that unknown, that prospect of adventure that compels humans to seek new frontiers to explore.

Hi, teacher and fellow classmates. Today I will be talking about how a journey can have positive and negative impact on an individual. Journeys are not just limited to the process of physically travelling as an emotional journey can be seen in self-exploration and imaginative journeys can occur to transport an individual from reality into an unreal world. Michael Gow’s play script of Away, relates to the challenges, goals and discoveries which are achieved by the characters Tom, Coral and Gwen as they endure physical, emotional and imaginative journeys, whilst the film To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Robert Mulligan in 1962 utilises the innocence of childhood to convey three personal journeys as demonstrated through characterisation and

An adventure can range on how much of a drastic change it has on your life. Starting from the bottom to the top is a goal that most people aspire. No one wants to be stuck in a job for the rest of their lives where there not going to be happy with what they are doing. In most cases you just think of kids’ right out of high school going to college to make something of themselves but in some other cases its older young adults and older adults that want to take the risk of going back to school to better themselves. There is no age limit on dreaming for what you want and for example most college students are taking the adventure of going to school and reaching their future ideal profession. If people didn’t have the motivation to aspire to be better we wouldn’t have doctors, lawyers, and fire fighters in our world. The world is filled with many people that just need to push to have adventure in their lives; people should not settle and be stuck in a job where they have to hate not only their jobs but sometimes their own lives. Our own parents for many people are living examples of people that want better lives for us they are the ones that show us that if we don’t make something of our lives we will regret it. Change will not come to us but we have to go after change. Taking an adventure in life is something you have to do