Quests In The Great Gatsby, And A Worn Path

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Every trip is a quest for self-knowledge in American Literature. As Thomas C. Foster states in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, “Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not.) (Foster 1). He mentions that there are also five components to a quest: a quester, a challenge, a place to go, a real reason to go there, and a stated reason to go there. There are many good examples of this in The Great Gatsby, Into the Wild, and A Worn Path. Each of these stories show items that require a quest and most of the time it is all five items. The evidence that will be shown will prove they are all quests and how quests are everywhere in American Literature. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby was on a search for Daisy Buchanan’s love. He hosted wild parties at his lavish mansion in hopes that Daisy would make her appearance. Everything Gatsby did was to try to impress Daisy Buchanan and win her love. This relates to a quest in American Literature because he was in search of something and was almost willing to do anything to earn the love of Daisy. As Jordan Baker, a character in the Great Gatsby, says, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisey would be …show more content…

The woman named Phoenix encounters lots of challenges on her way there. Welty writes “...he laughed and lifted his gun and pointed it at Phoenix.” (Welty 854). She came across a man, on her way to the town, who pointed a gun at her and threatened her life. She also goes on this trip for the reason of getting medicine for her grandson’s sore throat. “... I go on another trip for the soothing medicine.” (Welty 855). She makes the point her stated reason to go to the town is for the medicine to help her grandson. Also after realizing she was searching for the medicine, one can see her place to go was this town. This example proves to be a quest even though it is just a simple search for

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