Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)

The opening chapter of this book so entertainingly explains the significance and presence of a quest in literature. Foster easily describes to the reader the basics of what makes a quest a quest: a "quester", a destination, a reason to go there, challenges along the way, and a real reason to go there. However, what significantly makes a quest a quest isn't the reason why someone has to embark on this journey, rather, it's the real reason. The difference between the reason and the real reason is that the real reason requires self-knowledge, and a quest is not a quest unless it involves obtaining self-knowledge.

Foster makes quite a distinction between the real reason and the stated reason: the real reason never involves the stated reason. In fact, when a quester fails at the stated task, it might still be considered a quest because the quester does gain educational knowledge from it. Foster states that the only subject that truly matters is the quester him or herself. He or she must grow in self-knowledge in some sort of way during the quest to make it valid.

Take the extremely popular (and extremely overrated, but still a good example) Disney movie Frozen. The Princess Anna of Arandelle is struck by her sister Ice Queen Elsa, causing her to turn into ice. Anna must find true love to thaw her heart, and immediately seeks Prince Hans for a true love's kiss. Anna then embarks on a quest back to Arandelle to find Prince Hans, only to find out that he betrayed her by using her to get to the throne and leaves her to die (a major plot twist that infuriated preteens everywhere). However, near the end of the quest, the real reason is uncovered. Anna learns that Elsa truly loves her sister even if she has ignored Anna for the past several years, and that true sisterly love breaks the spell and Anna is saved (an even bigger plot twist that sent nearly everyone into tears). Anna also learns that by true love, it doesn't necessarily only mean romantic love, and that familial love conquers all.

Perhaps one might compare a quest to the hero's journey. They are similar, each having the protagonist embark on a difficult journey facing trials and challenges to achieve their targeted goal. However, a quest is more inclusive whereas a hero's journey is more exclusive. Anyone can take on a quest, but according to Julie Harris in "The Hero's Journey: Cultural Values and the Struggle Against Evil", the only thing differentiating a hero from the common citizen taking up a journey is the hero's response to the call to be heroic. Therefore, how the hero reacts to the call to action. But a quest doesn't require a person to be heroic, rather it makes anyone who embarks on it and gains self-knowledge a hero. Source: The Hero's Journey: Cultural Values and The Struggle Against Evil

At the end of the chapter Foster illiterates that not every trip someone takes is a quest. For example, when one drives to work everyday, not every car ride is a quest, because there is no growth. I may make a trip to the coffee shop early morning, and I will barely remember what I ordered. With this is mind, Foster states that discovering a quest in a book may be hard, since a character makes multiple trips here and there, but once a quest is discovered, the rest is easy.