William Sheppard
November 16, 2012
Professor: Kathryn MacDonald
Relationship between Internal Quest and External Adventure
In fantasy story telling the protagonist travels on an internal quest and external adventure. The external adventure delves into the situational adventure of the main character. This indicates the physical adventure, how the life of the protagonist unfolds to the reader. The internal quest dictates how the character grows emotionally. The internal quest is important in that it shows how the inner turmoil of the character transforms. This transformation from the protagonist that sees the world from a single view in the beginning of the novel to the overall picture towards the end of the novel. In this essay I will discuss how the authors of the novels “J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” and “Kenneth Oppel, Sunwing” handle the convention of both the internal and external situations they depict upon their characters Harry and Shade.
J.K. Rowling’s handles the convention of internal quest and external adventure by telling us how a young boy “Harry Potter” transforms both physically and mentally into a self-confident, maturing young wizard. Situations are designed to make Harry grow from being a boy with low self-esteem and self-confidence, living under his Aunt and Uncles staircase and being treated horribly, to a wizard that learns to think and take care of himself. J.K Rowling’s allows Harry to travel through a very trying physical adventure by letting him face many dangers with the help of his friends. J. K. Rowling lets Harry face and overcome many obstacles, whether he is chasing winged keys (J. K. Rowling. p203) or fighting Lord Voldemort in Professors Quirrell’s body (213). These all help Harry turn into a self-confident boy that will decide to overcome evil by standing up and facing it head on. J.K Rowling lets Harry grow from a timid boy that is afraid to speak and ask questions at the Dursley’s home to a boy that can protect a device from the most sinister wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort (212). J.K Rowling handles the convention of the internal quest and the external adventure by placing Harry into situations that allows him to grow and determine his own fate.
The internal quest and external adventure of a young Bat named Shade in the novel, “Kenneth Oppel, Sunwing” is masterfully handled by the author, he simply allowed an adolescent bat to follow his adventurous inner quest, to grow and fulfill his destiny. From the onset of the novel Kenneth Oppel plainly sets the objective of Shade’s internal quest and his external adventure. To satisfy his curiosity and to find his father is how Kenneth Oppel sets Shade on his journey (Kenneth Oppel, 3, 8). Kenneth Oppel creates Shade’s external adventures buy putting him into constant danger. Shade escapes paradise by means of the underwater stream (56), he is then recaptured in the lab (79) and finally faces Goth, king of the vampire bats, in the great vampirism pyramid (229). At every physical adventure that Kenneth placed in the path of Shade, Kenneth also placed the inner quest, the decisions to continue on, to keep looking, and to keep fighting. Although Kenneth presents a young bat that is already a hero and has faced many dangerous situations in the past, he is determined to show us that the inner quest and external adventure can manifest itself at any point in life and that there may be many adventures to follow. Kenneth Oppel eloquently describes the inner quest and external adventure of an adolescent bat in a way that allows the readers to believe in what Shade is doing, to live in the moments of Shades adventures and turmoil’s.
In conclusion, both Kenneth Oppel and J.K. Rowling’s tell a story of an inner quest and an external adventure; however they tell it in different ways and allow the readers to discover the journey at different paces. Kenneth Oppel describes the internal quest of Shade as a determination to fulfill his curious nature, to be adventurous. Kenneth decides to tell us what Shades internal quest will be from the first page of the novel. All we have to do is follow along as he masterfully tells us of the external adventure that Shade follows as he is chasing his inner quest. J. K. Rowling decides to let his readers figure out what Harry’s inner quest is throughout the story; as the novel progresses we learn that Harry is not the boy who lived for ten years with his Aunt and Uncle,but is a brave, curious, outspoken boy that is not afraid to follow his external adventure.
Bibliography
Oppel, Kenneth. Sunwing. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010. Print
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 2010. Print
Bibliography: Oppel, Kenneth. Sunwing. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2010. Print Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 2010. Print
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