In literature, even though people may believe that their journey or quest will go a certain way, or has a certain purpose, almost always, the trip will change along the way. A great example of this is in Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. In the beginning of the story, the main character Janie sets off on a journey for love, or so she believes. As the story continues, and Janie is faced with many hardships as well as countless experiences that test her personal strength both physically and mentally, her quest for love quickly turns into a journey of self-fulfillment as well as finding her true, inner-self.
In the non-fiction novel How To Read Literature Like A Professor, author Thomas C. Foster analyzes many key factors that can relate to the key factors in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Chapter 1: Every Trip is A Quest (Except When It's Not), especially connects because of the focus that even when you believe something to be true, it always turns out differently than you believe it to. One specific example from the text is that the real reason for a quest never involves the stated reason, and the real reason is always self knowledge. Overall, this connects to Janie's story because although she believes herself to be searching for true love and happiness, as her trip goes on it is seen that the real reason for the quest is self-knowledge, and may have been that from the beginning, she just did now know it.
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