Tollison 1

Trip Tollison
Dr. Deborah Paes de Barros
English 203
3 March 2015
When the Quest is Over

I never would have believed it. The applause was for me. All my life I have been shy; a
wall flower; an introvert with a strong streak of geek glowing somewhere underneath an
unfinished, gawky exterior, hiding in the shadows for fear of being recognized. I remember the
fascination and awe I felt when I first heard Tony Robbins speak. I could not even conceptualize
how much of himself he projected when he spoke, nor how the knowledge he was relaying to me
might inspire changes in my life; even less believe that I might someday do the same. Yet here
was a group of professionals, the best in their fields, coming up to thank me for an outstanding
presentation, and asking me to share more of my thoughts with them. It was with only a
moments reflection that I realized that by projecting my full self into this group, I had, on a
smaller scale, done the same thing Tony Robbins did when I had heard him speak. I had inspired
changes in how these people would use their knowledge to do things. Never again would I have
reason to dread public speaking. I had faced my fear and overcome, even surmounted it. My
personal epic quest had been fulfilled. Now what?
Such is the ever after of any successful portrayal of a quest. Though the existence of
the persona may continue, the telling of the journey is done. The motivating force of seeking
that defines the heroic quest presents some very specific challenges to an author: when to reveal
the nature of, and completion of, the quest; how to finalize the telling of the tale. Time becomes

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an authors invisible tool. In both The Razors Edge by Somerset Maugham, and in Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer, though the authors presentations of the heros journey differ radically and
provide almost opposing forms of entertainment, each author uses time as a tool to share their
own philosophies on life.
The ability to transcend time allows great freedoms to a writer, yet this ability also
requires a writer to choose the when of both the beginning and ending of the presented story,
as well as controlling the pace and flow of time. The heros search has an intrinsic challenge as to
when exactly to begin and end the authorship of the tale. The decision of when and how to
introduce the main characters defines how the author will proceed with the story. Often the
author, once the primary search is fulfilled, is done with the telling of the story and hastens to
address loose ends and find some way to end the tale while the afterglow of the completion of
the quest still lingers in the readers mind. The fairytale cliches of Once upon a time and they
lived happily ever after address this desire for introduction and completion within the attention
span of a child and are rarely appropriate for use with more sophisticated audiences. Both
Somerset Maugham and Jon Krakauer choose to address these challenges in ways that allow the
authors to express their own concepts of the importance of time in life.
In the first line of The Razors Edge by Somerset Maugham, the author chooses to allow
himself a freedom of timing and contrariness of subject not often seen in tales of heroes.
Maugham releases himself from these bonds of standard format in the opening line of the book,
telling the reader, I have never begun a novel with such misgiving ... I have little story to tell
and I end with neither death nor marriage(9). These words encourage the imagination of the
reader and free Maugham to explore the world of his tale in the present tense. The reader can feel
as if sitting next to the narrator listening to his latest gossip. But I leave the reader in the air(9),

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hints Maugham in his first paragraph. These uses of the present tense in the introductory
paragraphs introduces the authors sense of the importance of staying in the present moment
while living life. In the first page of the story, a glimpse of Maughams philosophy shines
through.
Krakauer chooses a radically different philosophy and approach. Beginning the first
chapter of Into the Wild with a postcard from the primary character shows the importance the
author places on capturing each individual event event life offers..
April 27th,1992
Greetings from Fairbanks! This is the last you will hear from me Wayne. Arrived
here 2 days ago. ...
If this adventure proves fatal and you dont ever hear from me again ... I will now
walk into the wild. Alex. (11)
In one swoop, Krakauer provides the reader with everything to define the story: he inserts the
reader into the middle of the heros travels, sets the tone of the story, defines the exact time line
and primary character, and separates the reader from the events by both time and location. The
opening of his tale with the brevity of a postcard shows just how much importance the author
gives to the individual events each of us creates in life. Krakauer uses this instantaneous view of
time to associate events to his own, and others, lives. These contrasting uses of time in the within
the beginnings of their tales exemplify the authors choices of both the when and the flow of
the journey as tools to express the authors views on the importance of time in the experience of
life.
Krakauer and Maugham continue to choose very philosophically different ways to end
their tales. Krakauer completes the quest of the main character in record time. He almost

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immediately tells the reader of the death of the hero, stating, Chris McCandless had been dead
for two and a half weeks(21). Though the journey for Chris McCandless is concluded within the
first two chapters of the book, the freedom to transcend time allows Krakauer to explore and
analyze in depth the individual events that, together, define Chriss travels; relating these events
to the authors own, and others, life stories and choices. Krakauer ends his telling of the travels
of Chris McCandless well after Chris death in an exploration of how, even after many years,
instances in one life continue to define the instances in the lives of others. Krakauer retraces
Chris final route to see where Chris died, creating an instance where he can directly associate his
own life to that of Chris McCandless. By going to such extreme lengths to explore the moments
in the life of his main character, Krakauer reemphasizes the importance he gives to the
examination of the individual moments we each create in life.
Maugham continues his expression of the importance of living the moment as he
constructs many varied quests in his novel and ends some, including one of his own, within the
confines of time expressed within the pages of his book. Maughams own epic quest may not be
recognized as significant until the last paragraph is read, ... I had written nothing more or less
than a success story(327). Indeed, the success stories, small and large, of many varied
individuals are conveyed in his telling of this tale. He leaves the reader with some pursuits
complete by death, some complete by action and others unfulfilled or continuing. By examining
the importance of each quest as a journey that may, or may not stay its course and may or may
not be completed, he maintains the reader in the present moment, flowing with time, ever
forward. Maugham further emphasizes the importance of the journey itself by exploring many,
often contradicting, quests with his characters. The juxtaposition of such differing pursuits
amplifies the importance Maugham gives to the flow of living in the moment. Moral nihilism,

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existentialism and social eminence are but some of the quests followed by the characters in his
tale. Maugham shows no judgment on any of these quests and celebrates each equally, showing
preference only to the continuation of the journeys traveled by Maughams subjects. He even
goes so far as to ensure one character, Elliot Templeton, maintains his forward progress even on
deaths door, with the narrator writing the response to a purloined invitation, Mr. Elliott
Templeton regrets that he cannot accept Princess Novemali's kind invitation owing to a previous
engagement with his Blessed Lord (377), just before Elliott slips into his final coma. This
emphasis on the progress of life, even beyond living and into death, portrays Maughams
philosophical belief in the never beginning, never ending, flow of life through time.
The search may end, though time moves on. Life gives opportunity, and we often revisit
the past in our attempts to define what drives us forward. Though Krakauer and Maugham
present their narratives in different ways, both use the concept of time as a method of
incorporating themselves and their philosophical beliefs into the telling of these stories of their
own heros quests. I applaud both! I find each authors use of time to represent his life view
inspired.
Reading these works brings to me the same fascination I felt when I first heard Tony
Robbins speak. His clarity of thought and ability to communicate concepts to an audience held
me in awe. I could not help but think of how liberating it would be to no longer fear the
possibility of rejection when expressing my opinion, or that of being mocked while providing
knowledge to a group. Somerset Maughams and Jon Krakauer`s use of time inspires the same
feeling of fascination and awe I feel when listening to Tony Robins.
Inspires, fascination, awe: Hmm ... Lets see now, how did I become a public speaker?

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Works Cited
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. First Anchor Books Edition, February, 1997. Nook file.
Maugham, Somerset. The Razors Edge. First Vintage International Edition. September 2003.
Nook File

When the Quest is Over by Trip Tollison is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US.