Journeys as Metaphors and Quests: The Life Writings of Leopold Weiss, Malcolm X & Kristiane Backer

Journeys turn out to be big turning points in an individual’s life, often helping him realize the truth about his existence. In accounts of life, journeys loom large as major quests in the life of the individuals concerned and they emerge as metaphors of multivalent and ambivalent implications as such accounts take shape as powerful creative expressions. The present paper is an attempt to explore the autobiographies of Leopold Weiss, Malcolm X & Kristiane Backer, three major life writers of the last one hundred years, whose life’s journeys took entirely different directions following the startling discoveries they made in the course of their wanderings. Their respective backgrounds, predicaments, and challenges in life were very diverse. However, the course and direction their lives took, following certain turning point incidents, seem to have a good deal in common which makes a study in juxtaposition very rewarding.

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