READING THE JOURNEY MOTIF IN THREE MIDDLE GRADES NOVELS FROM TWO CULTURES

Abstract

The journey motif has been used for a very long time in literature beginning with the Greeks. For example, in Oedipus the King, Oedipus in running away from Thebes to forestall the words of the gods from coming to pass finds out who he really is and what he has done. - killed his father and married his mother as was foretold. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, undertaken by a group of pilgrims allows   each narrator to tell us who he/she really is and enables the reader to see not only the irony but the hypocrisy for some of the characters in the Tales. This paper analyzes three young adult novels from two cultures using the journey motif as the vehicle for the analysis. The three novels are Bud Not Buddy and The Watsons Go to Birmingham both by Paul Curtis   and Journey to Jo’burg by Naidoo (1986) A content analysis approach was used.  It was found that these novels are suitable for young adult readers.  Finally, five strategies for reading these novels were also discussed.