The communist government in China has many of the Chinese citizens convinced that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not controlling them. Some citizens believe that the CCP are honorable leaders, and the people who revolt against the government are foolish. In reality, the people who revolt are the heroes trying to save their country, and the leaders are corrupt, power-hungry, cruel people. The real hero does not always get the acknowledgement he deserves; sometimes the nemesis is mistakenly believed to be the hero. In The Iliad, Achilles and Hector are sometimes confused by the readers as to who the hero really is. The Iliad is an epic poem written by Homer about the Trojan War and many conflicts within it. In this poem, The Iliad, Homer …show more content…
Steve Coates’ article quotes Alexander, he says, “Achilles is at once a star-like demigod and a raging monster” (Coates). Alexander suggests that looks may be deceiving, but it is on the inside that really counts. Achilles appears to be a great demigod, but on the inside he is an inhumanly cruel person. Achilles is an eristic man; he refuses Hector’s wish in honoring his body and giving it back to his family if he is killed in battle. The narrator says, “But it was shame and defilement Achilles had in mind for Hector” (xxii. 438-439). By the narrator saying this, it briefly foreshadows what repugnant actions the next few lines will hold. Because of the way the narrator arranges these words, it seems as though Achilles plots to ruin Hector’s body so that it cannot be returned to his family. “He pierced the tendons above the heels and cinched them with leather thongs to his chariot, letting Hector’s head drag” (xxii. 439-441). Homer paints this horrendous picture of Hector being dragged by a chariot. This is a very disturbing thing for Achilles to do, and since he shows no regret, it confirms that he has no conscience or remorse for what he did. Phoebus Apollo, a Greek god, even says Achilles is an unpleasant and awful man. Phoebus …show more content…
A hero is not always the person who is powerful or has divine qualities but is someone who is admired for courage, noble qualities, and who is honorable or virtuous. They are driven because they know fighting for their cause is the right thing to do. In many instances, the true honorable hero is imperceptible at first, but is later found to have been there the whole time. Honor is high respect which cannot be received just by being powerful; honor can only be presented to those who have a true virtuous conscience. Just like the Communist government in China, many of the Chinese citizens do not realize that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is corrupt, but, the citizens will later find out that they were oblivious to those people who truly had righteous intentions for
In the introduction of the Essential Illiad given by Sheila Murnaghan, Achilles is labeled as “the greatest of the Greek heroes”. In classic mythology a hero is a person of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits and is often the offspring of a mortal and a god. Achilles was the greatest fighter among the Greeks or Trojans and feared no man in battle. He was also the offspring of a mortal and a god so by classic mythology definition, Achilles was indeed a hero. A hero is defined by the present day Websters Dictionary as: “one who inspires through manners and actions; an individual who leads through personal example and accomplishments requiring bravery, skill, determination, and other admirable qualities.” Achilles, in no manner, fits this definition. By contemporary standards, he is instead a pathetic villain. Aside from being a kidnapper, rapist and murderer, Achilles proves to be emotionally weak, selfish, and malicious. Many times throughout the Illiad, Achilles is also referred to as “godlike”. The gods of Greek mythology were subject to the same emotions and character flaws as humans, and though privileged to some foresight, the gods had similar mental capacities as humans. What really set the gods apart were their powers (controlling the elements, changing their appearance, etc.), great strength, and immortality. Because of his great strength and apparent invincibility, it is easy to see why Achilles would...
Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a prestigious scholar claimed that all of China’s tragedies are ‘sustained by a mistaken belief in the correctness of the 1949 revolution’ and that the future progress of China depends on the recognition that the revolution was a failure. However, the CCP government was certainly not perfect and its most significant failures were its political failures such as the Anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution and also economic failures such as the great leap forward. Millions of peoples were falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement.
...as experienced in the novel. They often encounter external pressures that society imposes on them and if they choose not to comply, they are subject to the consequences of individualism. The laws of New China are underlying and not clearly expressed; however, there is a sense of societal acceptance for the ethical construct of these new protocols. The power held by the party is depicted in the characters’ decisions to go against their innate wants and conform to what is regarded as the correct behavior. Their fates become jeopardized, which stimulates their shifts in action. In conclusion, Jin’s novel highlights the influence of communism and how many people are not able to live freely, being that they reside in a society under the surveillance of the party’s enforcers and have no other choice but to respect the status quo.
The question "was Achilles' anger justified" brings up issues that seem to have little or no relevance to the war. In time of war I would expect the leaders to prioritize the groups interest for the sake of unity and cooperation rather than being entrenched in achieving their own personal goals. But my expectations are those of a modern day literature student, I'm inclined to think that the Greeks who first read this epic valued different things than myself. Another relevant question might be "were Achilles' actions justified". Anger can be easily justified, but the actions that anger might lead you to take are not as easily justified. Again I am not an ancient Greek and my opinions are irrelevant unless I open my mind to different viewpoints. Therefore I am striving to look into this issue through ancient Greek eyes where the principle of sacrificing ones own interests was apparently not valued, but maintaining ones honor, on the other hand, was greatly valued. In the following paragraphs I will attempt to answer these two aforementioned questions.
In Book 21, Achilles kills a hostage at his mercy, whose life he has sparred in the past. By the end of Book 21, Achilles has killed so many Trojan’s that the river is clogged with the bodies of his victims. Achilles behaves without a care for human life, as well as his treatment toward Hector before and after he kills him. As stated in Blucher’s article, Achilles is found to go berserk, committing atrocities to both living and dead. This, for Shay, is the story of the Iliad and also as Shay goes on to demonstrate, the story of many Vietnam combat veterans”. (Blucher). Before their battle Hector begs Achilles to honor his corpse if he is killed in war, and Achilles refuse, saying, “Don’t try to cut any deals with me, Hector. Do lions make peace treaties with men? Do wolves and lambs agree to get along? No, they hate each other to the core, And that’s how it is between you and me, No talk of agreements until one of us Falls and gluts Ares with his blood” (Homer). His statement of intent to dishonor Hector’s corpse and to damage the body after his enemy’s death, shows that he had anger towards his superiors. The most disturbing portrayal from Achilles is his behavior, when Hector’s father Priam meets with him to ask for Hector’s body. This show Achilles’ anger is driven by rage towards other superior officers in the
Throughout the Iliad, heroic characters make decisions based on a specific set of principles, which are referred to as the “code of honor.” The heroic code that Homer presents to readers is easy to recognize because the heroic code is the cause for many of the events that take place, but many of the characters have different perceptions of how highly the code should be regarded. Hector, the greatest of the Trojan warriors, begins the poem as a model for a hero. His dedication and firm belief in the code of honor is described many times throughout the course of the Iliad. As a reward for heroic traits in battle, prizes were sometimes awarded to victors of war. In Book 1 Achilles receives Chryseis as a prize and a symbol of honor. Heroism had its rewards and its setbacks which ultimately was the backbone of the Illiad in the case of Achilles prize. Hector, arguably the greatest Trojan warrior or even the bravest of the Homeric heroes is very fierce and fights for what he believes is his destiny. In book VI Hector expresses his bravery when Andromache pleads with Hector not to fight when Hector says, “But I would die of shame to face the men of Troy and the Trojan woman trailing their long robes if I would shrink from battle now, a coward. Nor does the sprit urge me on that way. I’ve learned it all too well. To stand up bravely, always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers, winning my father great glory, glory for myself” (VI, 387).
The Greeks placed great importance on personal honor. Why is this? Is it because to them man I nothing without honor. Or is it that the honor is more important than the man? "Honor to the Greeks is something that is won by a man's prowess, his ability to fight and be victorious on the battle field"(Schein 62). This is just one example of how honor is obtained. A second method of gaining honor is to be a great orator, one must posses the ability to speak in the assembly and express his ideas eloquently, and persuasively to the gathered body. A third way of achieving personal honor is to demonstrate athletic ability.
“ My Hector. It is for him I have come to the Greek ships, to get him back from you. I’ve brought a fortune in ransom. Respect the gods, Achilles. Think of your own father, and pity me. I am more pitiable. I have born what no man who has walked this earth has ever yet borne. I have kissed the hand of the man who killed my son” ( Book 2...
The Ancient Greeks admired their heroes and tried to learn from both their achievements and their mistakes. They believed that most great leaders and warriors followed a predictable behavior cycle, which often ended tragically. In Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, Achilles is a great warrior who traces the stages of the behavior cycle twice, from arete to hubris to ate and then to nemesis. Achilles is a highly skilled warrior and a great leader who becomes a narcissist and an arrogant person, which leads to selfish and childish behavior resulting in the death of his best friend. Following Patroclus’ death, Achilles repeats the behavior cycle by regaining his courage and motivation, and goes back to battle against Hector. The pride he feels in killing Hector and his overpowering hatred for him, leads Achilles to another bad decision: disrespecting the body of his enemy. This foolish choice leads directly to Achilles death. Although The Iliad is mainly known as a story about the Trojan War, it is understood as a story about Achilles and his struggle to be a hero.
Hector fights for belief and respect while Achilles fights out of rage and rashness. Achilles is not respected by his men, rather he is feared. Nobody wants to receive the blunt of the attack when Achilles randomly flies into a rage, therefore his men are terrified of him and allow him to do as he pleases. Within the first book of the poem, we read that Achilles is considered by many to be "god-like". (King Agamemnon, Book 1, line 154)
After that part, Achilles shows vengeance when he talks about how he wants to kill Hector. 'I will not live nor go about mankind unless Hector fall by my spear, and thus pay me for having slain Patroclus, son of Mencetius.';
In Homer’s The Iliad he tells of the battles and events during the time of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. This was just a small portion of the Trojan War that had lasted ten years. The Iliad shares the ideas of the glory of war, military values over family life, and the impermanence of human life and its creation. One thing that Homer does is characterize the two different warriors Achilles and Hector. These two great warriors both show different kinds of traits that shape the character they become throughout the The Iliad. Achilles is the main hero in The Iliad, but Homer subliminally tries to persuade the reader that Hector is the true hero in this story.
Zeus is his grandfather of Achilles and also Apollo is his uncle which angers him because he is not a god. When Achilles was a baby, his mother dipped him in the River Styx making him immortal but missed his heel making him not a full god even though he has many noble gods in his family. In the same way, Hector travels to vast settings, Achilles also does but he travels with the Greek Army and not the Trojans and also visits Olympus. He has beyond human speed and also is immortal everywhere except his heel. In the Iliad he is referred to as “godlike Achilles” (Homer I, 8) Achilles shows pride because his is loyal to his friend Agamemnon even though they fight often. Throughout the book, they fight and one fight Achilles said to Agamemnon “You bloated drunk, with a dog’s eyes and a rabbit’s heart,” yet he still stays faithful to him. (Homer I 236-237) He is an excellent warrior because he outruns everyone and wins mostly every fight he is in. Finally, he shows humility and pride when his best friend, Patroclus, dies. Achilles may be hard to be viewed as one because he often withdrawals from battle as Hector states,“You’ve chased them back into their town, but now you’ve veered off here,” but since he fits into these characteristics, he is an epic hero. (Homer XXII
Phoenix’s paradigm narrative fails to persuade Achilles to rejoin the war because the specifics of that narrative, his choice of myth, and his botched retelling of it fail to connect with Achilles' specific concerns.
Hector is just mainly a good person. He has his flaws just like every other person who ever lived, but it seems as if his strengths outweighed his flaws. Hector loves his wife and his son more than he loves himself. He was loyal to his wife and wanted the very best for his son. He left them to go fight because he knew it was what he had to do for Troy (Homer 79). In today’s world, people do not merely look for someone who is a great warrior, but also someone who is an overall good person. Hector is very brave and reasonable. He is very courageous and will fight for his country no matter what the cost. Hector does not act like a child in difficult situations like Achilles does, but he acts like a mature man. Along with Hector being a good person, he is also a great warrior on top of all that. The modern world needs somebody they can look up to who acts in a positive way. Hector never turned against his own country like Achilles did when he wanted Zeus to be on the Trojan’s side (Homer 13). The people in ancient times chose Achilles rather than Hector merely because Achilles is an outstanding warrior and he is part god. Fighting is what Achilles excels at, and at that time, that was really the only aspect that mattered. It does not matter that Achilles is selfish, stubborn, and prideful, as long as he can fight well for his country. The Greeks were actually hurt by this because Achilles did not even end up fighting for his country until his best friend died. His stubbornness outweighed his greatness (Homer 178). Achilles was the greatest warrior physically, but he was far from the greatest