In Sherman Alexie’s “Search Engine” and “What Ever Happened to Frank Snake’s Church”, he emphasizes the importance of a quest. In a quest, the protagonist has a destination, challenges, and a goal. While the stated goal may be something trivial such as playing a sport or meeting an author, the underlying, true goal is one that has to do with the self-knowledge of the quester.

          In “Search Engine”, Alexie depicts a young, smart Indian woman named Corliss. Corliss has always been fascinated with poetry despite her disapproving family. This, combined with her above average intelligence and ambition, plays into her quest for identity due to the fact that it causes Corliss to feel as though she does not belong where she was born. This is evident when Corliss looks at her father “and saw a stranger” after she questioned his lack of ambition (Alexie 16). Corliss then finds the most similar person to her she has ever encountered. Another Spokane Indian who left the tribe and not only read poetry, but published a book of it. She then begins her quest (or “vision quest” as she called it) to find this author Atwater.

         In “What Ever Happened to Frank Snake’s Church”, Alexie writes of a man who’s life at one point had been all about basketball. Frank, the quester in this piece, had had a great amount of potential to be an extremely good basketball player. However, his mother died while he was still playing, and in order to honor her, he retired from the sport he loved. Then, once he had reached the age of 39, his father also passes away. He then decides to honor his father’s memory by once again lacing up his old basketball shoes. His quest to play again has many obstacles, such as age or injuries. But on this quest Frank also finds himself when playing with a friend who calls him “just an old fart dying of terminal nostalgia”. Frank begins to break down into tears and respond “Don’t look inside me and then pretend you didn’t look inside me” (Alexie 228).