Foster presents five elements of a quest in his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor: a “quester,” a destination, a specified reason for the quest, obstacles, and the true reason for the quest. He writes, “The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge.” Certainly not every story has the same events or the same personalities. Even so, the fact remains that protagonists typically go on a quest not to find their Holy Grails (Foster), but to find more about or in themselves. In The Poisonwood Bible, Adah Price goes on a quest to find the voice behind her sealed lips and the woman behind her crippled body. Adah was born a cripple, a girl whose left side is useless. She not only literally drags herself across the earth, she seems to drag herself through the mundane experiences in life. She begins her journey preferring to keep to herself, refusing to speak and actively participate in the joys of childhood. She does not play games with the other children; she instead happily occupies herself with writing palindromes. She prefers solitude and peace, unlike Leah, who is much more extroverted. Adah frequently compares herself to Leah, …show more content…
Adah finally flowers after the women had left Kilanga and she had returned to America for education. Upon marching into the admissions office and saying rather bluntly that she needed to go to the medical school and university, Adah opened her petals. She no longer wanted to observe the world; she wanted to actively participate in it and help those around her. Eventually Adah decides that she no longer wants to work at the hospital and decides to perform research in microbiology. Here, it seems, she has finally found her happiness. She is an active citizen, meanwhile retaining her introverted nature by working by herself at times. She has finally found the lifestyle she loves: one in which she has found the balance between quiet observation and loud