Every Trip Is a Quest

Chapter 1: Every Trip is a Quest

Every journey is a quest and contains the following five requirements: a quester, a place to go, a stated reason for the quest, challenges along the way, and a real reason. “The real reason is always self-knowledge” (Foster 3). As seen in Frankenstein, one can note different stories within this story as shown through the three different people going on a quest. Walton’s quest, Frankenstein’s quest, and the monster’s quest. Walton is on a search for scientific improvement in the North Pole, but on the road his ship soon gets trapped in ice. The second quester, Frankenstein, is on an attempt to discover the elixir of life, although the biggest challenge on his quest is himself. The final quester, the monster, is on a journey to fit into society and to find human companionship. Of course looking the way he does, he comes across several issues on this journey, one being humans not wanting to bond with him. Overall, each quester went on a quest in order to discover self-knowledge.

Chapter 9: It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, weather can mean and be interpreted into many different things. Thomas C. Foster describes how, “weather is never just weather. It’s never just rain. And that goes for snow, sun, warmth, cold, and probably sleet” (Foster 70). Mary Shelley personifies storms as natures divine’s will. In Frankenstein, rain is mainly utilized as a tool to foreshadow. When Victor trespasses his boundaries, trying to assume what God’s role is, nature fought back against him, by raining when the monster was brought to life. Here, it is evident that rain is not just a type of weather, in literature it can be used as a weapon, or a sign to warn someone. Thus, weather in literature must be looked at with a magnifying lense, as it can symbolise or foreshadow several different things.

Chapter 11: ...More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence:

There is always a reason behind violence as shown through the monster in Frankenstein. In literature, authors will use violence to convey different thoughts or ideas. Thomas C. Foster explains how violence, “is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications. It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent” (Foster 95). There is always a reason to violence in a novel, but the reason must be uncovered by the reader. In Frankenstein, the monster’s violence is due to his suffrage and seclusion from society. His reason for killing is not simply because he is a rampage monster on the loose, rather, due to him seeking revenge on society as a whole. The monster explains how, “I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him” (Shelley 144). It is clear here that the monster is justifying his reasons for committing acts of violence, and he is not just some violent monster seeking trouble. The ultimate reason behind this, was to show how society can define and label an individual as a “monster”.

Chapter 12: Is That a Symbol?

Throughout literature, it is clear that symbols are absolutely everywhere. To analyze symbols in literature, one must use their experience, questions, and knowledge. Symbols can be identified not just by objects, but by actions and events too. In Frankenstein, the most obvious symbol one will note is lightning. When Victor catches a tree get struck by lightning he thinks, “I never beheld anything