The Quest

This week, I will be evaluating the recurring appearance of the quest in literature. My favorite book series, The Selection by Kiera Cass. Although the quest is not as obvious as in other stories, it still is prevalent in these novels. I do not want to spoil the story for anyone, so if you have not read the books and want to, DO NOT READ ON.

The story begin with the main character, America, living with her big family.  The social classes in their kingdom go from one (the royals) to eight (homeless people). America and her family are Fives. America is secretly dating her childhood friend, Aspen. He is a Six, so he is poor, but he still demonstrates that he could provide for America. In order to try to win more rations from the government, America’s mom signs her up for the Selection. The Selection is a tradition in which the king-to-be is given the choice of thirty-five girls to be his queen. All girls must be ages 16-20, but otherwise, any girl can apply. The prince can eliminate anyone of them until there is only one remaining. America doesn’t want to be selected because it would mean giving up her romance with Aspen. Out of all the girls, America does end up being one of the selected. She is hesitant, but as soon as she sees Aspen associating with another girl, she accepts. America’s stated quest is to provide for her family with the benefits gifted to her by the royals. Her real quest, though, is to get revenge upon Aspen. America encounters condescending competitors and along the way, starts to fall in love with the prince. Will she ever find love? Read the books to find out.

I personally think that the quest occurs in so much literature because of the search within it. As it says in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, “The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge” (Foster 3). In my opinion, almost everyone in our real world is on a quest for self-knowledge. That’s why literature involving the quest is so popular. The quest is relatable. Everybody has or will at one point doubt their self-identity, and have to go on a quest to find it. Wether that means traveling the world, or just living out everyday life, a unique person must be found. So when we read fiction, we can somehow use it in the next day, and learn more about ourselves.

An Analysis on the Yoruba Creation Myth

The Yoruba tribe is located in what is now Nigeria and the Republic of Benin (Africa). Their creation myth goes as following. In the beginning of the Earth, there was only the ocean and the sky. The god, Olorun, was in charge of the sky, while Olokun the goddess ruled the waters. Obtala, another god, decided that he wanted to create land on the water and went to Olorun and asked permission. After Olorun approved, Obtlala went to Orunmilla, the god of prophecy, for advice. Orunmilla told Obtala that in order to make land, he must gather a gold chain, a snail’s shell full of sand, a white hen, a black cat, and a palm nut. All of the gods contributed what gold they had and Orunmilla provided the rest of the supplies. Obtala packed all of the materials into a sack, except for the gold chain. He hung the gold chain from the corner of the sky and began his climb down. Obtala reached the bottom of the chain and still had some distance to go, so Orunmilla instructed him to dump the sand out of the shell onto the water and place the hen on top of it. Obtala did what he was told, and the chicken began to spread the sand around. Dry land was created and Obtala called it Ife. Once reaching the land, Obtala planted the palm nut, which immediately matured. He sat down with his cat as company, finished with his work. After a couple of months, Obtala became bored and decided to create other life to bring him company. Obtala found clay in the soil to mold creatures like him, but grew tired and decided to take a break. He made himself a bowl of palm nut wine, and drank bowl after bowl without realizing that he was becoming drunk. Obtala went back to his work, creating multiple deformed figures and calling Olorun to breathe life into them. The next morning, Obtala noticed his mistake and swore never to drink again and to protect those who are deformed, becoming the Protector of the Deformed. Obtala sculpted new people, who began to make huts and prosper. Olokun, goddess of the sea, was infuriated because Obtala had not consulted her when making land, and flooded Obtala’s creation. The flood wiped out almost all of the people, and from that day on the tribe always took the sea seriously.

I think that the creation myth that emerged from the Yoruba culture emerged for many reasons. First of all, I think that the people of the tribe were influenced by the ocean, seeing that the tribe resided near the coast. This is one of the reasons that the people felt that the ocean had always been there. I also think that the tribe realized that not everybody was perfect physically and provided an explanation for those natural happenings in their creation myth. The Yoruba tribe also provided explanations for animals, plants, and humans in their myth.

Fall Break

This week, I’ll be writing about my fall break. Although I stayed in Colorado the entire time, it was still a nice break.
Monday: My car had a screw in its tire so my family and I went to Discount Tire to try to get it removed, but the mechanics said they could not squeeze us in, so we made an appointment on Thursday. Afterwards, we went to Parry’s Pizza for lunch and ran by Home Depot to grab paint for my parents’ room.
Tuesday: In the morning, I had volleyball team pictures at eight am and practice until eleven. My mom picked me up and we took my dog to the dog park. We went home and ate leftover pizza and relaxed. That night, my siblings and I went to Noodles and Company with my dad.
Wednesday: On Wednesday, I was unable to attend volleyball practice because one of our cars was in the shop and my dad had taken the other car to work. I slept in! When I woke up, it was super foggy and I love fog, so I took my dog for a walk. The rest of the day, my siblings and I just played together.
Thursday: Volleyball practice was at nine. My mom picked me up at 11 again and we headed to the tire shop for our appointment. Our original plans were to go to the Qdoba near the tire shop for lunch while the car was getting fixed. The worker told us that it would take nearly an hour and a half and my mom had some Target returns to make so we decided to walk to Target. On our way to Target we stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch. The tire shop called us about 30 minutes later and told us that our car was ready. We walked back, drove our car home, and hung out for the rest of the day.
Friday: There was no volleyball practice on Friday, so I slept in once again. My mom had to take my dog to the vet and so I stayed home with my siblings. We jumped on our trampoline for a while before she came home. We ate dinner as a family and then my mom dropped me off at my friend’s house for a sleepover.
Overall, fall break was a great time to recuperate before school started again.

In Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, he discusses the concept of intertextuality. The book defines it as “the ongoing interaction between poems or stories.” Foster strongly endorses the topic with solid evidence. Personally, I think that intertextuality does exist. I think that there is no such thing as an entirely original idea. Although some thoughts start as unique, but once they are elaborated, they lose their originality. The one thing that I do not understand is if no idea is original, how did the standard ideas come to be. Basically, if there is no unique thought, than how do we have the thoughts upon all others are based on? Were the first ideas original?

Anyway, let us discuss works I consider essential to my own cultural literacy. First, is Shakespeare. In my opinion, it does not matter which piece of his, I think that they all educate the reader well. While not only training the audience’s minds to understand old English, Shakespeare’s plays and poems demonstrate how to write classically. Next is “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. As I have discussed on my blog before, this book is a wonderful example of symbolism in literature. It is great for beginners because it makes the allusions fairly obvious and also shows a perfect definition of satire. The last work that I think has shaped my cultural literacy is “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Harper Lee’s historical fiction not only includes symbolism, but also an intense storyline to captivate readers. The book teaches students about racism in the South in the 1930s without losing the audience’s attention. Overall, I think that these three stories should be considered classics and I would recommend them to anyone reading!