Since its beginnings, literature has been characterized to a remarkable degree by stories and images of travel. What gives birth to many texts and what drives them forward is very often a kind of journey. However, these movements are not always simple physical movements from one place to another. Writers often use travel as metaphorical representations of life itself. In one way or another, travel metaphors allow writers to express notions of chance and choice, discovery and departure, search and struggle. As critic Stephen Hutchinson so clearly puts it, "the journey is a universal, yet diverse, metaphor that reveals much about how writers of different places, times, and beliefs characterize themselves and the very world in which they live” (Hutchinson 72). ). As a result, great writers such as Homer, Miguel De Cervantes, Saint Augustine, and John Bunyan all characterized life as a journey in many of their great works. For example, while Homer's Odyssey and Cervantes' Don Quixote examine life through metaphorical journeys of circular departure and return, Augustine and Bunyan represent life through journeys that are much more linear and progressive in nature. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Throughout the story of The Odyssey, Homer reveals and examines a life in which gods are like men and men are like gods, a life that offers choices but guarantees destiny, a life which is priceless but in which nothing is free. Odysseus's journey back to Ithaca after the Trojan War consists of many small adventures, and by examining each of his adventures along the way, one can understand Odysseus' journey as a whole and the journey of life itself as seen through Homer's eyes. For example, the episode involving the Kyclops in Book IX of The Odyssey is one of those revealing episodes from Odysseus's journey. After Odysseus defeats the Kyclops and finally reveals his true name, the Kyclops realizes that destiny has been fulfilled: “Now the strange [Destiny, destiny] falls upon me, of which formerly they spoke. A wizard, great and wonderful, lived it --- Telemos, son of Eurymos he spent a long period of magic among the Kyklopes, and he predicted these things for the times to come: my great lost eye and between the; hands of Odysseus (Homer IX.531-536) This passage clearly reveals that part of Odysseus' journey is predestined, however, this does not mean that his entire journey is completely destined. Homer makes it clear that Odysseus and his men can and do make their own choices throughout their odyssey, and that they are also clearly subject to the consequences of those choices. For example, before encountering the Kyclops, Zeus initiated a. storm against Odysseus and his men in response to their pirate raid on Ismaros, a storm which takes them to the land of the Lotos Eaters and then to the land of the Kyclops. Therefore, since Odysseus and his men encounter the Kyclops as a direct result of their actions, but are also destined to defeat the Kyclops, they appear to participate in their fate in some way. Throughout the poem, Homer seems to illustrate this complicated interplay between choice and fate. Throughout their journey, Odysseus and his men actually participate in a kind of fluid, evolving destiny based on choice, consequences, and the will of the gods. Throughout his journey, Odysseus and his men can choose how to follow a certain path, but it is the Gods who choose thepath they take. Like most journeys in great literature, The Odyssey is a journey that undoubtedly represents the journey of life. The grandeur of The Odyssey is found in its grayness. Nothing is black and white. Through Odysseus's return journey, Homer presents life in all its mysteries. A complicated life in which choice is destiny, and destiny is choice, a life in which there are no simple answers. Miguel Cervantes also examines life through a similar metaphorical journey in his most famous novel, Don Quixote. Although most of Cervantes' novels coincide from start to finish with journeys, Don Quixote is clearly the most memorable of all. As one of the most famous fictional characters ever created, Don Quixote embodies a noble quest for a romantic ideal in a corrupt and fallen world, and as Cervantes recounts Quixote's chivalrous expedition, he continually juxtaposes chivalry and modernity, and in doing so he reveals life in all its confusion and complexity. Although the novel is full of metaphor-laden scenes, Don Quixote's battle with the windmills is perhaps the most unforgettable and representative scene in the entire novel. As Don Quixote confuses a field of windmills with an army of giants in the following passage, his confusion between the everyday and the legendary could not be more obvious: At that moment they saw thirty or forty windmills which were stood there on the plain. And no sooner had Don Quixote seen them than he turned to his squire and said: “Fortune directs our affairs better than we could have wished; because you see there before you, friend Sancho Panza, thirty or more lawless giants. with whom I intend to fight..." (Cervantes 1208) Throughout his journey, Don Quixote thus ridiculously romanticizes reality, and as his journey progresses, it becomes clear that the chivalrous world of past is gone forever. Cervantes' juxtaposition of romanticism and modernity parodies every aspect of chivalry and chivalric romance, demonstrating once and for all that European society has irrevocably changed since the era of knights and castles. However, through Don Quixote's journey, Cervantes not only parodies medieval life, he also questions the values ​​and realities of modern life. Finally, when Don Quixote is defeated at the end of the novel. he finally returns to the reality of life as usual At the end of his journey, Don Quixote arrives where he began, but he now knows this place for the first time Augustine's Confessions is yet another. narration of a metaphorical journey. However, instead of using a fictional odyssey to represent real life, Augustine uses real life as a metaphorical representation of a spiritual odyssey. Although Augustine's Confessions is an autobiographical account of his early life and conversion to Christianity, it is also much more. This is a complex piece of literature in which Augustine highlights certain episodes in his life with subtle biblical allusions (Foreman 9). For example, in Book II of his Confessions, the episode of the pear tree clearly parallels the Genesis account of original sin: "We took with us an immense load of pears, so as not to eat them, because we have them to barely tasted before throwing them to the pigs. “Our only pleasure in doing it was that it was forbidden” (Augustine 623). When we read about the forbidden fruit in a garden, we cannot help but think of the Garden of Eden. Accordingly, many critics argue that Augustine includes this episode because it fits the archetypal experience of Adam and Eve, 1994.