The first chapter of the book
presents an interesting concept: that every journey in a story is to be
automatically considered a quest. In my experience, this is overwhelmingly
true, especially in action and adventure novels. Like the author states, the
entire Lord of the Rings series consists of quest upon quest, with the
stated purpose being to destroy the ring and the actual purpose being to overcome
the temptation the ring holds. Gollum represents an alternate path for Frodo,
the one that would come if he chose to keep the ring and attempt to harness its
power. In vanquishing Gollum in the fires of Mount Doom, Frodo defeats the
other choice and finds self-knowledge.
However,
the author writes that not all journeys in stories automatically mean that a
quest is at hand. As he states, some trips must occur in order for the plot to
continue, but the mere fact that a trip is occurring does not imply or demand
that it is a quest. These types of journeys occur all the time in literature.
They are important for the plot to keep rolling forward but not important to
the overall quest or purpose of the protagonist. Because they do not directly
influence the main “point” of the story, most of these trips fade into
obscurity, left out of summaries, altogether insignificant.
The
vast majority of novels fall into the quest type of story due to the fact that
nearly everyone can identify with it in some capacity. Children have begun
their journeys to self-knowledge however unwittingly, thus, they identify with
the actual journey portion of the quest. As new members to the human race,
children face their lives stretching out before them in a similar way to that
in which questers see their journey before they begin. They have conflicts and
troubles to face down the road. The dragons, if you will. Teenagers are caught
between the realms of childhood and adulthood, like the quester who has recognized
that the stated purpose is not the only thing that matters; that they have
another, more self-fulfilling purpose to achieve on the quest. Teenagers have
not yet begun the journey to complete the actual purpose, but realize its
existence. Adults relate to the quester due in part to the fact that they
likely went through a similar journey to self-knowledge in their childhood and
adolescence and are remembering each of the stages of their own quest, and in
part because they relate to the quester at the end of his or her journey. They
can relate to the feeling of achieving the goal, completing the quest, and
looking for the next quest, just like the quester could face another quest in
sequels to come.
Although
it would be a stretch to say that every novel is a quest type of story, there have
been so many of this type due to the incredible way in which people of all ages
are intrigued by and relate to the quest story in multiple ways. Besides the
age factor, there is a gender factor. The majority of girls wished to be the
princess in all the stories at some point in their childhoods. And most boys
fantasized about saving a princess in some way, battling the dragon to win her
heart. Humans tend to enjoy those things we understand and can make connections
with, and the quest storyline is no exception to that.
