Victorian Literature of Quests

In Thomas C. Foster’s guide, How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised Edition, Foster presents readers with the knowledge that a trip in literature has the potential to become something much deeper, a quest for self-knowledge. Foster lists five very important aspects that every quest will have which are, a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a real reason to go there. The distinction between stated reason to go there and real reason to go there are that typically the quester goes along their journey and discovers an intimate detail about themselves that relates nothing to the stated reason. It gives the quester a better sense

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.

-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.

Quest is a method where a literary work is broken down into five simple components. The five aspect of Quest consists of a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go, challenges and trials, and a real place to go. This method can be applied to a novel by John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath because many examples are peppered throughout the story.

The first chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster is about the hero’s quest. Foster starts the chapter with a fictious example of a story with a protagonist called Kip that although on the surface seems like a search for bread, is actually an example of a knight’s encounter with nemesis, a quest. He then goes on to discuss the five components of a quest and how the parts often vary and are hidden in different forms. One of the primary take-aways from the chapter however is how the real reason for a quest is never the one stated but rather self-knowledge, the idea that the purpose for the quest is ultimately not the stated reason but rather a quest of education. Foster argues that the stated reason is more of an excuse for embarking on the quest, rather than the end goal and discusses

The first chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s guide to finding symbolism and motifs in literature, How To Read Literature Like a Professor, details the literary plot device of a quest and how to identify one in a novel. He introduces the chapter by explaining how a seemingly normal trip to the grocery store is a quest because it is structurally a quest. The hero, a boy named Kip, like every other hero in a quest, confronts various trials (his jealousy of another boy and his rejection by the girl he likes) in search of a “Holy Grail” (a loaf of bread). According to Foster, there are five components of a quest, all of which can be found in Kip’s story. The first structural component is the quester, or the character who is undertaking the quest, consciously or not. This character is known as the hero or heroine of the story, which in this case is Kip. The second and third elements are the “declared” purpose of the quest: a location that the hero must travel to and a reason to go there, which would be Kip’s search for a loaf of bread at the grocery store. Sometimes,

Charles Baxter has become a very successful author, mainly of short stories. In one of his most championed pieces “Winter Journey”, from his short story collection Gryphon, the story follows a character named Harrelson. The reader may read the story and wonder what the point of the story was. What exactly was the message or moral of the story? That is where Thomas C. Foster’s masterpiece, How to Read Like a Professor, comes into play. In the very first chapter of the book Foster introduces the topic of quests. In which he argues that every trip is a quest. Harrelson who is going to pick up his fiance, does in fact go on a journey. Therefore, Harrelson’s journey is not just a simple task, instead it embodies a quest he embarks in which he

In the book "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster, the first chapter is dedicated to explaining the aspects of a quest in literature. Using this chapter, entitled 'Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It's Not)' (page 1-6), the aspects in question can be related to the quest in "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. The first aspect listed is 'a quester' or 'a person who goes on a quest' (page 3, HTRLLAP); within the first line of the main story, our quester is revealed. We learn that 'the boy's name [is] Santiago,' (page 3, Alchemist). The focus of the entire story is on him and his journey, so the first aspect is there. 'A place to go' (page 3, HTRLLAP) is the second aspect, a very pivotal component for the development of the story.

To begin with, the quester is Crispin. Each quester has a stated reason to go on a quest or trip. Crispin fleas his village in search of liberty. As stated in the novel, “I beg you to find your way to some town or city with its own liberties.” Secondly, a quester must travel somewhere.

A quest narrative tells the journey of an individual on a mission, often with both physical and psychological obstacles. With each step closer to completing the mission, more of the past, that was once disclosed, is revealed and the individual grows as a person. In Marie-Elena John’s novel, Unburnable, Lillian searches for answers to her troubled past and misfortunate family. Her journey back home, to the place she left with scars, unravels the truth about her family’s past, allowing her to heal while gaining a better understanding of why things turned out the way they did. Lillian’s quest to seek the truth about her grandmother’s trial reveals the history of untameable, bold women in her bloodline, inspiring her to have faith in herself and

In chapter one of “How to Read Literature like a Professor” by Foster, we learn the key elements of a quest. Structurally a quest consists of (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials experienced on the way, and (e) a real reason to go there. According to Foster (pg 3), “The real reason for a quest never involves the stated reason”. The real reason for a quest is self-knowledge, which is why most questers are sheltered, immature, inexperienced, and young. We find this to be true in “Varjak Paw” by S.F Said and Dave McKean. Varjak Paw is a young Mesopotamian dark blue cat who is forced from his home into the streets in order to find a dog to aid him in saving his family. However in literature

A quest consists of five variables according to How to Read Literature Like A Professor; a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials and then a real reason to go. In Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi the adventure of Crispin to gain his freedom meets the standards for a quest. In a village where children lived according to their fathers name and rank, Crispin had little to no rank in Stromford, England. Due to the absence of his father, Crispin was referred to as Asta’s son and had no knowledge of his real identity or his heritage. In order to escape the sorrow of his mother’s death and the pressures of John Aycliffe, Crispin scurried toward the forest, where he suffered a blow to the head and is knocked out.

The comitatus “stressed the loyalty of a thane to his chieftain and treated exile and outlawry as the most tragic lots that could befall one. This secular sense of loss is keen in The Wanderer.”6 Not only is the loss of a lord evident in “The Wanderer,” but in “The Seafarer” and “The Wife’s Lament” as well.

Although Ulysses and Odysseus share similar traits, Homer would not agree with Tennyson 's portrayal of Odysseus in the poem "Ulysses". Whereas Odysseus wishes to complete his journey and find relief, Ulysses seeks to continue on a never-ending one.

great prosperity in Great Britain's literature. The Victorian Age produced a variety of changes. Political and social reform produced a variety of reading among all classes. The lower-class became more self-conscious, the middle class more powerful and the rich became more vulnerable. The novels of Charles Dickens, the poems of Alfred,