1. Every Trip Is a Quest
(Except When It’s Not)

2. Questing: The Basics

3. Structure of a Quest A quester (knight) Place to go (far away land)
Stated reason to go there (princess)
Challenges on the route (dragon)
Real reason to go there (deeper)

4. The Real Reason? Why does knight really go on quest?
Goes because of stated reason
Never completes stated reason
Real Reason ALWAYS self-knowledge
Must not be too old to learn

5. Example: Thomas Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49
Young Woman, not happy with marriage
Not too young to learn
Drives to South Carolina from home
Execute business of former love
Meets strange, scary, and dangerous people

6. Real Reason Name: Oedipa (after Oedipus the King) Doesn’t know self
Friends stripped away
Must rely on self
Must find self on which to rely

7. Other “Typical” Quest Tales
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Lord of the Rings
North by Norhtwest
Stars Wars

8. So… Is Every Trip a Quest?
No, sometimes the plot is as simple as an uneventful day going to work

9. The End