"Journey" is a short story about a trip told in the second person, "you." It can be interpreted in a metaphorical way. The narrative of the story talks about a journey that starts on a road that is "broad and handsome, constructed after many years of ingenious blasting and leveling and paving." The person traveling has a map at this point, and his or her destination is in sight. However, the person grows bored with the monotony of this trip and veers off onto smaller and more winding roads until he or she is traveling by foot. In the end, the person is lost but decides that he or she would not have altered the trip in any way.

1. A Journey
Joyce Carol Oates
Lucas Lorran
Maurício Coelho
Raquel Benaion
Willian Araújo

2. Contents
• Author
• Themes
• Setting
• Characters
• Plot
• Climax
• Symbols
• Activity

3. Joyce Carol OatesCarol Oates
• June 16, 1938 Lockport, New York
• Youth
 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
 Brontë sisters, Dostoevsky, Faulkner, Hemingway.
• Syracuse University
 1960
• University of Wisconsin
 1961
 Raymond Smith
• Charles Gross

4. • By the North Gate (1963)
 40 novels, plays, short stories, poetry
• She has won many awards
 National Book Award (them, 1969)
 O. Henry Awards
 National Humanities Medal
• Wrote under pen name
 Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly
 “I wanted to escape from my own identity” (1987)
• The Poisoned Kiss and Other Stories from the Portuguese
(1975)

5. Theme
• The emotionally and spiritually rewarding
experience of stepping off the known into
the unknown;
 The journey itself is more important and
rewarding than the destination.
• Metaphor;
 Life.

6. Setting
• The two roads:
• 1. The highway: down from the mountains is broad and handsome,
constructed after many years of ingenious blasting and leveling and paving.
• 2. The smaller road: The road leads deep into a forest, always descending in
small cramped turns.

7. Characters
• The traveler

8. Plot
• You’re a traveller heading to a city through a
highway, but decides to change lane for it is boring.
• You turn into a road parallel to the highway and
goes on inside forests and villages that aren’t used to
travellers.
• You now can’t see your destination anymore, but you
still keep going through this path.
• You enter in another smaller road and your car
bumps and rattles. You drive slowly and won’t get to
the city before dark.
• You follow enthusiastically a faint path of rocks,
bushes and trees, and by foot now, you see the
blooming yellow flowers.
• By evening you are still in the wilderness and you
wonder if perhaps you have made a mistake. You are
exhausted, your body aches, your eyes are seared by
the need to stare so intently at everything around
you.

9. Climax
You find yourself
standing at the edge of a
forest, staring ahead into the
dark. Is that a field ahead, or
a forest of small trees? Your
path has long since given way
to wild grass. Clouds obscure
the moon, which should give
you some light by which to
make your way, and you
wonder if you dare continue
without this light.
Suddenly you remember
the map you left back in
the car, but you remember
it as a blank sheet of
paper.
You resist telling yourself you are
lost. In fact, though you are
exhausted and it is almost night, you
are not lost. You have begun to
shiver, but it is only with cold, not
with fear. You are really satisfied
with yourself. You are not lost.
Though you can remember your map
only as a blank sheet of paper, which
can tell you nothing, you are not
really lost.
If you had the day to begin again, on that highway which
was so wide and clear, you would not have varied your
journey in any way: in this is your triumph.

10. The Symbolism
• The Traveler
• The Map
• The City
• The Two Roads: Highway / smaller road
• The Forest
• The River
The Traveler
• “You begin your journey on so high an elevation that your destination is
already in sight […]”
The Map
• “(the city) is indicated on a traveler’s map you have carefully folded up to
take along with you […]”
The City
• “a city that you have visited many times […]”
The Two Roads:
• The Highway: “The highway down from the mountains is broad and
handsome […]”
• The smaller road: “You sense [...] that travel
on this road is infrequent but nothing to draw
special attention.”
The Forest
• “The road leads deep into a forest… […] makes it impossible for you to look
out at the forest”
The River
• “ For a while the dirt road runs alongside a small river […]”

11. References
• http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/05/specials/oates-pseudonyms.html
• http://rhsweb.org/assignments/Blaber/English%201-2/
• https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-theme-journey-by-joyce-carol-oates-739110
• https://celestialtimepiece.com/2015/12/31/journey/
• https://celestialtimepiece.com/2015/12/31/journey/
• https://ograndejardim.wordpress.com/2015/10/15/a-floresta-dos-contos-de-fadas-uma-fonte-de-simbolis
• https://symbolrea
• https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-theme-journey-by-joyce-carol-
oates-739110der.net/2013/04/14/the-symbolism-of-the-forest/