Are you on a quest?

Are you on a quest?

The author describes, in this chapter about “quests”, how even a mere outing of a character can mean much more. He creates a fake situation to illustrate this more clearly. The simplicity of the situation is almost comical: How could a boy running an errand to the grocery store be on a quest? Well, in literature, a quest simply involves five key elements: 1.) A “quester” – the person making the quest, 2.) A place to go, 3.) A stated reason to go there, 4.) Challenges along the trip and 5.) A real reason to go. However the reason for the quest is generally not the stated reason for going. The real reason is one of self-knowledge. This “quest” is present in many coming-of-age stories. For example, the novel Great Expectations has all of the required elements of a quest: 1.) The quester in this story is Pip, a young orphan boy, 2.) The place to go in this instance is not a physical place, but a state of being, Pip is on a journey to become a high-class gentleman, 3.) The stated reason is so he will be good enough for Estella. Also, after his experiences with the upper class at Miss Havisham’s house, he believes he will not be happy until he is a gentleman, 4.)  Pip experiences many challenges on his quest. First and foremost, he faces internal conflicts. These conflicts revolve around him losing sight of what matters most. To pursue Estella, he loses the people who actually care about him. He later realizes that he has wasted enjoying his real life in order to pursue a girl he hardly knew. His internal conflict is a major part of the book. Pip also faces many external conflicts on his journey. They begin with his sisters mistreatment. He grows to resent his sister, however, this does bring him and Joe closer together. He faces challenges with other characters as well, including Magwitch, Biddie, Drummle, Orlick, and Compeyson. These details of these conflicts are not necessarily relevant to his quest. However, these do contribute to his difficulty to reach his ultimate goal, 5.) The real reason is not truly seen until the end. Even when Pip becomes a gentleman, Estella does not love him. He learns during this time of self-improvement that affection and loyalty are much more important than wealth and social status.

This concept of quests is very interesting to me. I had never really considered such simple things as aspects of a quest. I always felt like a quest had a connotation of a large outing in pursuit of something tangible. I had never thought of it this way before. However, when reading this chapter, I immediately connected this quest archetype to the famous book "Great Expectations". While his quest is not to save a princess in a castle, it is arguably still very much a quest. It is just not for something tangible but for a state of being. This has changed the way I comprehend literature. Now when learning about a character going through something, I wonder if possibly he or she is on a quest. I have found this quest occurring in "The Catcher in the Rye" and even "The Wizard of Oz". While being aware if this archetype, I have realized the quest is present so much in media, as well as literature.