Structure of Quest Essay
In writing about how the quest archetype appears in the novel (Their Eyes or The Road), remember this piece of
advice: “If the stage doesn’t fit, don’t wear it.” For example, don’t force a mentor on a hero if one does not
legitimately exist in the novel. Don’t identify a “Meeting with the Goddess” if this doesn’t occur anywhere. You
do not need to identify every stage of the Hero’s Journey, and trying to force the pattern might only serve to
misinterpret the novel. Use the archetype only where it serves to illuminate a deeper understanding of
meaning.
In order to help you structure all your brilliant ideas, think about how you want to break down your analysis.
One obvious approach is to consider the structure of the Hero’s Journey, but there are other ways. Your
organizational strategy should reveal how your brain has synthesized this material. Here are four different ways
that I have brainstormed how to structure the body paragraphs of this Quest Essay. Feel free to borrow or
adapt one of these, or brainstorm your own structure for this essay.
Structure A: Character-Plot-Theme
o
Body P 1: Character as Hero(ine)
o
Body P 2: Plot—Physical Quest
 Separation
 Initiation
 Return
o
Body P 3: Theme: How the quest reveals meaning in the novel
Structure B: Separation-Initiation-Return
o
Separation
P 1: What is the quest stage?
P 2: How does it reveal meaning?
o
Initiation
P 3: What is the quest stage?
P 4: How does it reveal meaning?
o
Return
P 5: What is the quest stage?
P 6: How does it reveal meaning?
Structure C: Group Vogler’s 12 stages of the Hero’s Journey
*Each paragraph will include explanation of the quest stages (where applicable) and analysis of meaning.
Body P 1: Ordinary World, Call to Adventure
Body P 2: Refusal of the Call and Mentor
Body P 3: Crossing the first threshold and Tests, Allies, and Enemies
Body P 4: Inmost Cave, Supreme Ordeal
Body P 5: Reward, Road Back
Body P 6: Resurrection, Return with Elixir
Structure D: Plot-Context-Meaning
I.
Plot Structure: Physical journey—Primary source (NOVEL)
o
o
o
Separation
Initiation
Return
II. Contextual elements: Secondary sources (ONLINE SOURCES)

Myth: How do these mythological sources reflect the quest in the novel?
o The Road:
 The Grail
 Arthurian Legends
 The Fisher King
o Their Eyes
 Voodoo
 African American folklore

History/Society/Science: How does this background also reflect a quest pattern (i.e. the quest
pattern of a social movement or a scientific theory of human development)?
o Harlem Renaissance (Their Eyes)
o Civil War-Segregation-Pre Civil Rights (Their Eyes)
o Scientific articles from the Sante Fe Institute (The Road)
III. Meaning—Interpretation (ORIGINAL ANALYSIS)
Introductory Paragraph
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Reference to the title and author of the work you will analyze
Background/contextual information about the novel
Brief one-sentence synopsis of the novel
Introduction to the archetype of the quest
Thesis statement that identifies what your essay will prove about the meaning of the quest in the novel
Literary Analysis Paragraph Guidelines
Each of the five parts below represents at least one sentence in a literary analysis paragraph. You are encouraged
to expand upon these guidelines and even use more than one of each in a single paragraph when needed.
1)
Topic sentence—introduces main point of paragraph (may transition from last point to new point).
2)
Provide Background Information—what does the reader need to know about the topic to understand your
main point overall and your quote specifically? Go over the details from the text that the reader needs to
know about before they are ready for part 3, the quote.
3)
Textual Evidence—set up quote with lead-in, then present quote—Start sentence with your own words, then
present quote with parenthetical citation. Example: Creon recognizes his responsibility for these deaths in his
family towards the end of the play when he says “I alone am guilty” (Scene 5, 121).
4)
Analyze and Explain—analyze how your quote helps to prove the main point in your paragraph. In other
words, explain to the reader why you presented this quote and what they are supposed to understand about
it. (Do NOT write “this quote shows…”—don’t say it, just explain it).
5)
Concluding sentence—draw a conclusion about the main point presented in the topic sentence based on the
content of the body of the paragraph as a whole AND/OR connect the main point of this paragraph to your
thesis.
Concluding Paragraph
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Connect back to hook in the introduction—this sends a cue to the reader that the body of your essay is over
and the conclusion has begun.
 Your conclusion should echo your introduction without simply repeating it.

Synthesize main points of your argument—explain how the supporting points from your body paragraphs work
together to prove your thesis.
 Do NOT just list all your main points in one sentence.
 For every body paragraph you should have at least one sentence in your conclusion.
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Extend the meaning of the novel to society, politics, humanity, individuality, science, life . . .
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So what? End with a concluding sentence that emphasizes the relevance/significance/importance of your topic,
leaving the reader satisfied and thinking. This should answer the question, “so what?”
Quest Essay: Sample Body Paragraph
Hurston continues to develop Janie’s character through her quest-like encounter with a “mentor” figure in
Tea Cake who helps her to rediscover her voice and identity. After overcoming her role as a repressed trophy wife
with Jody, Janie finds Tea Cake and falls madly in love with him. He treats her as an equal, and allows her to speak
freely and live according to her own determination. Janie experiences fulfillment and happiness with Tea Cake,
which is something she has never had before, and this encourages her to recognize the importance of her own
desires in life, as she explains to Phoebe: “So us is goin’ off somewhere and start all over in Tea Cake’s way. Dis
ain’t no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s
way, now Ah means tuh live mine” (Hurston 114). Janie no longer cares about the porch gossipers in Eatonville;
her trust in Tea Cake’s sincerity and dependability override all suspicious suggestions from others, and her love for
him gives her the power to pursue her life with Tea Cake down in the Everglades, which once again represents the
excitement of the horizon and the quest for adventure. “[Tea Cake] helps Janie to gain confidence and insight, and
he accompanies her on her journey as an equal partner in confronting the journey’s trials. Tea Cake also,
channeling Legba, facilitates Janie’s “crossing of the threshold” from the ordinary or everyday world (Eatonville)
into the “world of adventure,” when he and Janie move to the muck on the Florida Everglades” (Smith). The quest
archetype becomes even more revealing when understood through the blending of African American folklore and
Haitian Voodoo, which Hurston studied and Brenda Smith refers to in her analysis of Janie’s quest. While Janie
resembles the feminine spirit of Erzulie, Tea Cake resembles Legba, the spirit of the woods and the fields (Smith).
Tea Cake represents the power of nature that beckons Janie early on underneath the pear tree at the onset of her
quest. He opens Janie’s mind to new possibilities and ideas, “If people thinks de same they can make it all right. So
in the beginnin’ new thoughts had tuh be thought and new words said. After Ah got used tuh dat, we gits ‘long
just’ fine. He done taught me de maiden language all over” (Hurston 115). Through Tea Cake’s mentor role, his
reinvigoration of the quest, and his nurturing of her free spirit in nature, Janie finds the voice to express her
commitment to their relationship regardless of the judgment of others.
Quest Essay: Sample Thesis Statements
McCarthy doesn’t simply rely on the quest as an archetype; the quest context allows for McCarthy’s
overarching ideas about humanity to be drawn from these two heroes’ journey as they “carry the light”
of hope in a very dark landscape.
As Janie’s journey follows the traditional quest archetype, progressing in three major sequences
following a false search for love and companionship, Hurston also comments on the dogma of American
society, allowing Janie to transcend the existing stereotypes and expectations placed on black women.