Challenges Faced In Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

While monster and Cyclops’ may not affect soldiers as they’re returning home and their at home life like they did Odysseus’, but there are still several other things that will affect their homecoming and daily life. The challenges and difficulties Odysseus faced relate to the challenges and difficulties soldiers of today face. For example Odysseus was gone for many years and missed major parts of his family’s life.Another example is, Odysseus entered Polyphemus’ home looking for help and shelter, but instead Polyphemus ate his men and was going to eat him. Another example if this is, soldiers may not have everything they had when they went to war because of financial issues or divorce. The last example of this is, soldiers have to deal with the anxiety of returning to society and re-adjusting to their normal lives.

Today’s soldiers and even Odysseus deal or have dealt with anxiety. Even though soldiers didn’t have to literally

fight off monsters and other enemies like Odysseus they still had their own war in their mind. For example they may be wondering can I do this, will people accept and respect me, or if I get injured and it permanent how will deal with it. Another example of this is Odysseus and soldiers today have missed major parts of their friends and family’s lives. Some of the things Odysseus missed was the death of his mother, going hunting with his dog, his son becoming a grown man, and he missed years of his marriage with Penelope. Some of the things soldiers may miss is a death in the family, a child being born or graduating,a marriage, a relative having a child, and many more things. The soldiers missing these things can result in them not knowing what's going on in their family, their child not knowing who they are, financial problems when they return, and maybe even divorce. When Odysseus missed these things he missed out on his son’s life, getting to spend time with his mother, and was worried about his wife being faithful to him. These things may have caused problems for Odysseus, including anxiety and maybe even some other issues.
When Odysseus first returned, he didn’t want anyone to know he had returned because he wanted to know that Penelope was faithful,but once he returned he saw that Penelope had been faithful to him.

Also, some of today’s soldiers may have the same worries and concerns about do their spouses will their spouses still love them and will their life go back to normal once they return. They may also have to deal with the anxiety of returning to society and trying to fit in,and wondering if their kids will remember who they are.While soldiers may not be gone for twenty years they can still be gone for a very long time, so for some of the younger members of the family may not recognize them because they were very small when that person left. Odysseus had this same concern and it most likely bothered him when Telemachus didn’t recognize him as his father. Also when this happens soldiers may have problems reconnecting with their families and even their friends. Even though at this point the soldiers have returned home the war may never end for

them.
While today's soldiers may not have to fight cyclops’ or other mythical monsters they still had their own wars away from the war. While Odysseus was still in the war he visited Polyphemus, the cyclops. When he and his men went in they were looking for shelter, food, and comfort. But when they went inside Polyphemus was not happy with them being there, so he ate two of his men and was going to continue doing this for breakfast and dinner until they were all gone since this was his plan he wouldn't allow them to leave so they had to make an escape plan. This relates to today’s soldiers because even once they have returned home they still may have not fully escaped the war. When this happens it’s usually because the soldier has post traumatic stress disorder or ptsd. Ptsd is a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world. In other words this is when soldiers continuously have flashbacks to the war that may cause them to think they’re still in the war. During his time with Polyphemus, Odysseus and his what was left of his men find away to escape. He and his men gave Polyphemus wine until he passed out once this happened they blinded him and later escaped. For soldiers there's not a cure for ptsd but there are things they can do to help it like volunteering with other veterans, exercise, etc. Odysseus and the soldiers had many similar difficulties throughout their lives and may even have more.
So in conclusion there are many similar difficulties that both Odysseus and today’s soldiers had to deal with. Even though these soldiers didn’t have to fight of real monsters and other creatures they still had a lot of the same issues. they have to deal with anxiety issues wondering will this happen or not. Also Odysseus and these soldier miss majors part of their friends and family’s lives. When the soldiers aren’t in war they will still have a war at home because of things like ptsd. Also when Odysseus returned home he had to prove himself causing even more stress like when soldiers return from war. All soldiers and Odysseus have problems they have to deal with after returning from war.Even though the soldiers stories are real and the odyssey isn’t there are still many similarities to their homecomings and many we may not know about.