Proverb interpretation?

Question

"The right good Literary Work is always a work of travel, it is about a life's journey" i need some one to interpret that for me.

Answer 1

We often consider life to be a journey; you start someplace and end up somewhere else. Of course this is metaphorical. It does not mean that you necessarily move from one physical location to another, it means that you "move" through time and experiences – you discover new things, learn about life, learn about yourself, etc. Learning is always a process of change. Your are always DIFFERENT after learning something (if you have not changed, then you have not really LEARNED anything). The concept of change, in general, is related (metaphorically) to the concept of physical movement. If you "change your mind" then you have "moved" from one belief to another. This "movement" can be thought of as part of a "journey" in the sense that you take a risk and "step out" into new territory (new beliefs, new desires, new points of view, new friends, new enemies, etc.). Since there is a risk involved in confronting anything new, there is a sense of adventure associated with any journey.

A good literary work deals with the growth of at least one character in the story. The character CHANGES over the course of the story because she has learned something new, or feels differently as a result of experiences, etc. Thus the character can be said to "travel" through her experiences and you, as the reader, are a witness to this travel.

But what makes the work really GOOD is that YOU (the reader) are the true traveller. The character is just fiction, so technically it never really changes. It is YOU who learn something and change as a result of reading the work, so even though you are reading about some character's journey through life, the book itself is really a part of YOUR journey. Notice how we often say of a good story that "It really moved me" or "That was a really moving story." This movement refers to emotional change. The story "takes you on an emotional rollercoaster". The story changes you, and thus you have been moved – you have been on an adventure; you have traveled.

Answer 2

A good work of literature takes the reader into the protagonist's life and experiences, as if you are living and experiencing his life, hence "travelling" through his life.