Chapter 1: Quest

In This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona, Victor ventures out to Phoenix, Arizona to make arrangements due to the death of his distant father. He is a quester sent off on a quest without the awareness of even being sent on one. Setting off to seek his father cremated remains, savings account and pickup truck Victor is faced with challenges before even leaving the Indian reserve. Victor being broke must find money for his trip to Phoenix to began, however the council will only give him a 100 dollars not nearly enough for a plan ticket. This is where his old friend Thomas Builds-the-Fire plays a vital role of assisting Victor on his quest. Thomas offers money for the plane ride to Phoenix but only if he can join Victor.
Thomas Builds-the-Fire not only provides Victor with the extra money needed to complete the trip but pivotal role of helping Victor understand the hole that is missing from his life with his father’s absents. Thomas tells a story of walking all the way to Spokane to follow a dream. Victor’s Father takes him back to the reserve worried about his safety; he promises he won’t tell anyone in return for Thomas to look out for Victor. Victor sees his father in a different light through Thomas’ story changing his views of his father. This is an example of how a quest being a place to go transforms to the real reason for a quest, self-knowledge. The real reason for the quest was to gather things up of his father’s from Phoenix but then is change to find forgiveness for a father who left him and learning about a caring side he never saw in his father.
Victor gains insight about his dad from his trip, finding that even though he left him that he still cared about him and the significants of “taking care of each other.” Victor being the quester was given a place to go, Phoenix, sent to take care of arrangements due to his father’s death. Money was a challenge in his quest but the realization of a fathers care was the real reason for the quest.