Everyone has their own description of what a journey is, but the definition spans beyond the definition found in a dictionary. The challenges or trials met along the journey should not deter a person from reaching the destination. The difficulties or obstacles that are encountered on the journey can change a person’s opinion on many levels. In “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty and “Used to Live Here Once” by Jean Rhys has one theme in common; the journey they take in life. The stories both center on the journey, and the way a person goes from one phase of life to another.
Like most, my life is always changing and things do not always work out as planned. I think it is important to remember to stay in charge especially when you are down. For me, when I am down, that is when I am most susceptible to be influenced by others or my surroundings. I do not really agree though when the book discusses using this map for “designing the rest of your life” (Life Launch pg 48). To me, that sounds too much like a perfect world and like we all have enough time to sit down and plan everything out and then
Just as any other human being, Odysseous has a set goal in his mind where he will face temptation, obstacles, and emotional pain throughout his jounay back to Ithica. On our journeys we all must give into or resist tempations that may decrease or increase the chance of reaching our goal. Each person has given into atleast one temptaion at some point in their lives. One temptaion Odysseous willingly faced was listening to the Sirens’ songs. Odysseous did not collapse into temptaion and begin killing of his suitors, instead he his in disguise and waiting for the right moment, Odysseous also defied temptaion when he did not reveal himself to the people around him, instead waited it out.
My Personal Journey Journeys are moments in life that define and reconstruct the myths we create about ourselves and others. All too often the ideals of a biased community or select group are viewed as the model by which all individuals must follow. To escape the pressures of a collective standard a person must travel outside the constraints of a community and discover his or her own true identity. On such a journey one can expect moments of planned reflection or unexpected instances of revelation. A journey is every minute of my existence, as I travel through life and try to ascertain my own presence in its cycle.
A quest, “defined as an adventurous pursuit of a spiritual goal” (Oxford 681), has four key elements which sets it apart. Every quest has a “quester” or “a person who goes on the quest whether he know is or not” (Foster 3). Next, the quester always has a place to go and initial reason for going. Someone usually tells the quester to go somewhere or to do something. While on the quest, the quester goes through trials and tribulations that challenge everything they have learned from their travels.
Nick Ledvora Through the Tunnel Period 8 Through the Tunnel Archetypal stories “occur in many cultures. Making the long journey home, completing the ‘impossible’ task, or outwitting the formidable enemy are all archetypal plots” (Wilhelm R2). What gives these archetypal stories appeal to the subconscious mind is their connection to the universal life experience. One of the most universal archetypal patterns in every human being’s life experience is the adolescent struggle for adulthood. In literature, this struggle for adulthood takes the form of a journey or quest.
1. Parvana’s Journey written by Deborah Ellis says a lot of things about the concept of journeys. One of the main things that I have found is that in a journey it may be hard and it may even be impossible like what Parvana had to do in disguising herself as a boy in order to find her family in all of Afghanistan, however you can overcome the challenges faced in the journey with perseverance and eventually with the right attitude you can overcome any obstacle that any journey throws at you. This novel also says that in the journey you meet new people like what Parvana did when she met Asif and Leila and Hassan while on the journey. Parvana’s journey also suggests that when you go on journeys changes happen, which happens when Parvana found her long lost mother and sisters but lost her dear friend Leila at the end of the journey.
Chapter 1: “Every Trip is a Quest” Foster states the essential criteria for a quest: a character to embark on the quest, a destination, the initial reason for reaching the destination, difficulties faced on the way, and the actual reason to reach the destination. The character many times does not complete the initial assignment, instead achieving an increased understanding of themselves, which Foster explains is always the actual reason for a quest. Because of this, the protagonist is normally young and has not gained independence. The initial reason usually wanes with progression of the story. “Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations?...I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price perhaps of the existence of the whole human race.” (Shelley 114-115) Assuming that Frankenstein’s quest was to create another being to accompany his monster so that the monster would leave Frankenstein’s loved ones unscathed, his initial assignment was uncompleted as he tore apart the being he was making.
They both describe how one goes through life learning from life’s struggles. Paulo Coelho says in The Alchemist “We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property, but this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world are written in the same hand” (Coelho 76). What Paulo is talking about, is that we are afraid of loss. One does not want to lose their belongings, but once one understands that one’s life needed to lose those things in order to become who they are in life. In comparison Gary Allan sings “Life ain’t always beautiful some days I miss your smile I get tired of walking all these lonely miles” (Gary Allan).
It really is not as easy and it seems. There is still so much work I have to do and a long path that I have to get to the end of to complete my goal. But I know with all my hard work and dedication I will be able to reach the end of the tunnel and see the