Disturbing Experiences Always Lead to What's Not Expected (Except When They Don't) by Aubrey Chick

     Every time you read a story, you can easily look at it as simply just a construction of experiences into writing. However, these experiences are not only simple statements to make up a plot, but specific events that make up the "quest" in a story, as stated by Thomas Foster in chapter 1. If you have a different insight and read between the lines, you will find that almost every story has a quest. In order to discover the quest, the reader has to read between the lines of the plot. Through doing this, the "disturbing experiences" that occur along the way are the causes of the quester's change in emotions and actions, which strays them away from the intended plot of the story in the beginning. So the realization of the reader is to not focus on the stated plot, but what lesson or message comes along with their trip, referring back to the point of reading between the lines.
     To me, it is almost obvious as an experienced reader, to know that the character whomever he/she is, is not going to simply go on a trip. I know and expect that the character is going to experience a tragedy, or get into a conflict that will deter them from that expected trip. This "tragedy" or event is what brings excitement or drama to the book. I can give examples of almost every novel I've read where this has happened. Foster is just acknowledging this as a "quest" and the parts that make up the quest for that character.  I can agree to Foster's realization of the quest in most novels, but also when he states..."Except when it's not".
     Foster also contradicts his first belief by saying that not all trips are quests. I can agree with this because not every book is written to analyze the meaning behind the character's actions. Some stories are not meant to be picked apart and annotated, but are written to simply state facts and true situations that occurred in their lives. A lot of non-fiction novels depict this idea. For example, the novel "The Glass Castle", by Jeannette Walls, is the written childhood memories of Walls herself. As a child, she travels across the United States with her parents, struggling to survive in harsh conditions. Yes, many disturbing experiences come her way, but these experiences are purely just facts. They do not distract the character from the main plot or change the moral of the story and are not written to be deeply analyzed. There is no "Holy Grail" in the book like there is for Kip in the story analyzed in chapter 1. Yes, there was self discovery in "The Glass Castle", but the point was not to seek or go out on a quest. Therefore, trips are not always quests.
     This leads to Foster's statement about how the words "always" and "never" do not mean much in literature. He states how writers will refute another's argument once they read those words. Based on this idea, I can see how in the future writers are going to see Foster teaching how to read this way and they will begin to write in a different way to not follow the typical pattern. Although authors are now using the technique of reading between the lines and creating a quest, this writing style may change with time.