Chapter 1: Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It's Not)

There are five aspects of a quest, or so states Foster.  The five essential things to constitute a quest according to Foster are: a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a real reason to go there.  Each of these things are essential in formulating a quest.  Though a child does not run away from home with these aspects in mind, but said child does indeed fill each of these requirements.  The child at the end of this journey has acquired one thing, self knowledge, which are the purpose of all quests, whether it be subconscious or not.  Let's start from the top of Foster's five aspects and use the child as the example.  The child, is the quester, let's say this child decides a playground would be their best bet.  Perhaps they had wanted to go and their designated guardian had wafted away the idea, henceforth giving the child a reason to go there.  As the child travels to this location, the child will slowly realize that they will eventually run out of food, henceforth acquiring the self knowledge that the child will not in fact be living the rest of it's childhood at said playground.  Foster's aspects support the self knowledge claim, even in the form of children.