An Influential Relationship

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Recommended: The characterization of women in the Odyssey

Out of his element and surrounded by men lacking virtue, Odysseus, the protagonist in Homer’s The Odyssey, finds himself in great need of a motherly figure to guide and console him on his 20 year journey. Athena fills this role for Odysseus, providing him with a constant shower of motherly wisdom. Throughout his adventures, he turns to “Pallas Athene, daughter of Zeus, who is always standing beside [him] and guarding [him] in every endeavor,” (XIII.206). Everbe Corinthia, a Memphis prostitute, serves the same role in Lucius’ life while he ventures away from his comfort zone of Yoknopatawpha County and into a world of whoring, fighting and gambling in the novel, The Reivers. Similarly, Lucius plays the role of Everbe’s ‘son’, foreshadowing her future motherhood and changing her life forever with his great influence. In his novel The Reivers, William Faulkner uses Everbe as a make-shift mother figure for Lucius, but in the end, his influence has a greater impact on her.

Everbe reaches out to Lucius, surrounded by poor male role models, filling the necessary role of a positive maternal figure while on his Memphis odyssey. Her venerable (PSAT Vocab) actions guide him away from the non-virtue presented by Boon, Ned, Butch and Otis, in order to sustain his fading innocence. Everbe first tries to preserve his virtue by eliminating his exposure to the constant barrage of adult concepts and words. For example, Boon begins to make a smart-aleck remark, laden with suggestive material, but before he can finish, Everbe interrupts him, reprimanding (PSAT Vocab) “You hush, right this minute!” saving Lucius’ ears from the explicit content (136). She even goes so far as to ridicule her superior, Miss Reba, scolding, “And you too… your jus...

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...be loved and Everbe and Lucius set a perfect example of this love. But, in today’s world many people have forgotten how to show love to their neighbor. Some people have grown too self-centered, while others claim they are too busy, but for certain, everyone needs to make the time to at least show the same care and respect for their fellow man as they would want their fellow man to show them. Such as with Odysseus and Athena, Athena saw the good in Odysseus, his ability to do good even when the men around him weren’t, Odysseus looking up to her for her motherly care, wisdom and guidance (RWM). She became his Everbe while he plays the role of her Lucius. Faulkner spins a web around Lucius and Everbe, intertwining them from their first meeting and tying them closer and closer throughout The Reivers, as they change each other’s lives with their influence on one another.

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