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Quests In John Foster's Crying Of Lot

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In chapter 1, Foster states that not every trip is a quest. For example, a trip would not be a quest if a quest were to fail or if the protagonist does not end up with self knowledge. This means that the original reason to travel on the journey is never the real reason for travelling. He also states that not every journey is made obvious to the reader and is up to the reader themselves to figure out what the author is leading up to. Foster uses the novel Crying of Lot 49 as a way to show that quests can take on many shapes and forms. Instead of the typical knight voyaging on a quest, the main character is a married woman taking a trip to California. Foster claims that the novel is a quest because the reason for going was stated and that

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