Are teenagers looking for the grail?

Perceval is a story about a 15-year-old handsome lad who, because of his high moral qualities, is the chosen one to find the Grail. The Taxi Driver’s Daughter is a story about a pretty lassie (also 15-year-old) who, because of her inner and outer brightness, is the chosen one to be spoilt by the main antagonist (George).

Perceval’s main aim is to find the Grail, and on his way he has to pass different trials or tests. Caris is a teenager, and her main aim is to find herself and her place in life, which is, as I’m pretty sure, her Grail. Both Perceval and Caris have to face difficulties on their ways, and they have to do it almost all by themselves - nobody can help them. Perceval’s father is dead; Perceval’s mother stays in her castle. Caris’s father is a taxi driver, his taxi is his home, so Caris doesn’t often see him; Caris’s mother is in prison. Of course, they can meet mentors: Gornemant for Perceval, Nana for Caris. But let’s be realistic: these tutors don’t quite influence the characters and their pieces of advice, though reasonable, don’t please Perceval and Caris.

Caris and Perceval are the chosen ones, but they are still typical teenagers: sometimes rude, sometimes bad-mannered. Quite often, they don’t respect their parents and friends. Perceval, impressed by the knights’ appearance, doesn’t want to listen to his mother. He wants to become a knight whatever it takes him, notwithstanding his mother’s sorrow. Caris lives in a different epoch, but, as we can see, teenagers are the same both in the medieval period and nowadays. She upsets her mum by writing her short letters and playing an offended girl during their meetings in prison; she upsets her dad by pretending not to notice him and refusing to talk to him.

What seems sweet in Perceval and Caris is their viridity. Perceval and Caris are tough, but their freshness and naivete make us forget about this toughness. Perceval is surprised by knights’ armour and starts asking whether they were born with it. Caris makes an altar in honour of her mum and worships it. These marks of somewhat childish reactions and innocence make the reader feel ashamed of being too strict in judging Perceval and Caris. Smiling, we pardon them their faults. If you are envious, it is always simple to offend somebody who is special - and that is what happens to the heroes. They are insulted by some of the people surrounding them: a Knight sneers at Perceval, Layla hurts Caris’s feelings.

If we regard Perceval, the Story of Grail and The Taxi Driver’s Daughter as short sagas with some structural and magical elements of a fairy-tale, we’ll soon find there one particular feature of the genres mentioned: a number of symbols. Let’s have a look at some of them.

First, there’s a shoe tree in The Taxi Driver’s Daughter. Although the tree is usually considered as a link between the earth and the sky, in this book the meaning is different. The tree seems to symbolize Caris’s family: the wind tries to blow all the leaves off, strange people come with axes - but the tree still stays, lives and adores life. The tree is not the only symbol in this book. While Caris was spending all her time with George, she was close to completely losing her common sense, which is proved by all that drinking, smoking, protesting against her parents and robbing houses. She decided whose side to take when she saw an old woman in a house that George was going to rob. What if this woman is an incarnation of Caris’s common sense, lost for a long time? To some extent this scene can also be regarded as a last chance on her way to find herself.

As for Perceval’s common sense incarnation... I think it was the Fisher King. This enigmatic man stays in the castle, all alone, he keeps some secrets and all knights dream to reach and heal him, but what he possesses can be taken only by Perceval.

It’s worth mentioning that both Fisher King and the old woman are incapable of moving - the King because of his wounded legs, the woman because of George, who tied her up. If these heroes do stand for the main characters’ common sense, then it is a very vivid way to show that neither Perceval nor Caris can speculate properly, their minds are “lame”.

After passing all the tests, Perceval reaches the mysterious Grail. As for Caris, this is a bit more difficult, as it is already modern fiction. Actually, nobody can really say what the Grail is, neither in Perceval’s time nor nowadays. Perhaps for Caris the Grail is a newly-obtained contact with her family. It looks like she passed the tests, and for now she is sure to have peace in her soul and steady life.

Frankly speaking, for me it was a surprise - to find out that a novel written in the twenty-first century has so much in common with the one written in the twelfth century. At first I thought that only Perceval’s and Caris’s behaviour made me compare these stories, but then other similarities became obvious and enlightened my evening readings.