John Bunyan was not the first to write a significant work on the
             metaphorical journey of life. The story of a man traveling through familiar
             alien territory while meeting strange people and places has transcended all
             ages of literature. HomerÆs Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus return from
             the Trojan War, DanteÆs Comedy is the journey thought the 3 realms of the
             afterlife, SpenserÆs Faerie Queen exhibit the human virtues while traveling
             through forests, castles, and meeting dragons. However, The PilgrimÆs
             Progress is indeed a progression form these works; until this point, these
             allegories had been written as poems. Bunyan writes in prose, possibly
             because he was not schooled in letters but in metalworking and wasnÆt
             trained to shape his words the way previous writers had.
             In fact, BunyanÆs style is very unique. While undertaking a similar task
             that John Milton faced, that is, to make the basis of the Bible more
             identifiable for the reader, Bunyan interlopes quotation from the Bible into
             his prose. Its almost as if Bunyan had written a research paper and the
             Bible was his data. From Vanity Fair: ÔOne chanced mockingly, beholding the
             carriages of men, to say unto them, What will ye buy? But they, looking
             gravely upon him, said, ÔWe buy the truthö(Proverbs xxiii. 23).ö Previous
             writers like Milton would have simply made something up and used Latin based
             words to name their creations. Yet, he retains an element of poetic song in
             the PilgrimÆs progress. Beginning with his second Canto the Slough of
             Despond, he begins each with what he saw Now I saw, then I saw, So I saw.
             This technique allows his prose to have a feel of continuity akin to poetry
             without the burden of upholding a specific format for the whole piece.
             The entire work is dripping with the residue of Dante. Despite his limited
             education, IÆm sure that Bunyan was able to pic...