Pick a quest story and do a “deep dive” on the theme(s) of the quest. This involves 1) your own close reading of a text of your choice (often called a literary analysis) and 2) research on the text. You will use your research to support your interpretation of the text.
The first thing you want to do is to form some kind of a thesis. Then you want to look in the text to find passages that will support your thesis. The next step is to determine what kind of research you need to do on the text in order to support your own textual analysis. In the paper you should use both quotes from the text and from your secondary sources. Make sure that your quotes are relevant to your argument and short. Remember to cite your outside sources.
Be particular in choosing your outside sources for your analysis and use at least two. Make sure to log on to the library’s database before you begin your search so that you can actually download any material that you find.
One source needs to be an academic source: Look for sources from an academic journal, book, or website that has the.edu at the end. You might want to check out Google scholar as well.
The other source can either be academic or “non-academic.” Non-academic sources can include films, websites, magazine or newspaper articles/archives, government sites, interviews with authors, interviews you conduct yourself with relevant sources, and even YouTube videos. Be careful with nonacademic sources: check the sources to make sure they are legitimate and trustworthy.even if they are not “academic.”
Below is a list of possible topics:
Some of the stories we have read examine familial relationships and how they are impacted by individuals’ experiences on the quest. Do they shape and or destroy family relationships? For whom do you as the reader feel empathy?
Our texts all consider what it means to be human. Are individuals controlled by their feelings of ambition and desire for knowledge? What are the struggles that ensue for all of the characters? What does the text reveal about gender, sexuality, and/or race?
In many texts, conflict abounds relating to the quest. Take one text and explore the conflicts. What are the conflicts? Are they between characters? Are they internal conflicts?
Sometimes protagonists’ attitudes towards the quest evolve as the story progresses. If they do evolve, what does that evolution look like? What are we meant to understand from characters who evolve—or, likewise, who remain stagnant? What does that journey look like?
Are there any winners? Is anyone ultimately satisfied?
Choose a work that we have read and prove how it follows the structure of “The Quest” by identifying each stage of that quest within the story. Using the introduction to the chapters, analyze the author’s execution of each component and explore to what degree the story demonstrates each element. Consider how literary strategies such as point of view, characterization, plot development, figurative language, symbolism, cultural and historical context, help to demonstrate the overall theme of myth. Is this strategy effective in supporting the author’s purpose? Do not dare to summarize! Be sure to close read to develop and expand on your ideas.
In our textbook, “The Other” is described as “at first glance bear[ing] little resemblance to the hero. In fact, the two characters often look and behave in diametrically opposite ways. A close examination, however, reveals that they are intimately related” (Schecter and Semeiks 95). Choose two pieces of literature from this semester’s syllabus that at first seem “diametrically opposite” but upon closer examination “are intimately related”. This relevance can be based on content or style. Be sure to first establish the dissonance before asserting the coinciding harmony of the works.
Mythology has been described as a sincere attempt at answering humanity’s fundamental questions. These questions include, but are not limited to: how do we act? What does the universe have for us? What is our purpose? These are universal questions that have been considered by various groups in every era. Identify how the characters in two different works use the quest to seek a sense of identity, purpose, or to fulfill a destiny. Determine how the characters respond to their situation appropriately given their personal answers to these questions, and discuss how the authors present circumstances that can be seen as universal.
If we may legitimately presume that myths in part serve to reinforce social norms of behavior by both positive and negative examples (and I think we can), then what does mythology tell us about conceptions of gender—male-ness/masculinity and female-ness/femininity—and the relationship or boundary between them? Choose two works from the semester and analyze how the gender of the author, the setting, and the social stereotypes at work in the character’s environment serve to reinforce and/or to rebel against gender labels.
ps. we used the book throughout the semseter Discoveries Fifty Stories Of the Quest
its a bunch of short stories you can find online if you need to help.