The Princess Bride: A thriller that will keep you on your feet

Almost everyone knows of the classic movie The Princess Bride. It’s a story of romance, swordplay, giants, an evil prince and a beautiful princess. But does anyone really think about it as a quest? Mrs. Breakwell, an English teacher at SJHS, is teaching her students about the quests cycle. According to Mrs. Breakwell it was a good idea to apply the quest theme into our school learning.

In Mrs. Breakwell’s class students read stories and use the quest cycle to find what the character’s quest is.  If you look at a story you can easily find the quest. First look for the hero (the main character). Then you look for the call; the event that pulls the hero to their journey. Third you find the helpers and the hinderers (someone who wants to stop them on their journey). Fourth, you look for the journey; this is the hero’s actual adventure. Fifth you look for the transformation; this is how the character changed along their journey. The last step is the treasure, what the hero received from his/her journey.

For the last few days of February and the beginning of March, Mrs. Breakwell decided to watch The Princess Bride. She wanted her students to experience an example of the quest cycle. Fairy tales are often some of the best quests, such as a princess trying to find her way home; or trying to find the prince of her dreams. At the end of watching the movie her students will have to answer some questions that will go along the line of the quest cycle, including what was the main character searching for, who the main characters are, and what the characters had to go through to get where they were going.  Annie Anderson, an eighth grader here at SJHS, said, “The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies; it’s hilarious. The quest cycle was interesting to learn about too.”