Everyone always has a safe place in their hearts for their homes. Home doesn’t always have to be a place where someone just sleeps in. However, home to some people is where they feel comfort. Somewhere or someplace can be one’s home. Some of the characters in Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Rozario and The Odyssey by Homer express the theme of home through an emotional journey. Enrique’s Journey is about a boy named Enrique who goes on a journey to find his beloved mother who he has believed abandoned him. The Odyssey is about a mythology where a hero named Odysseus tries to find his way back to his homeland after participating in a war. Odysseus from The Odyssey shows the theme of home by trying to return home to his family. Enrique from Enrique’s Journey shows the theme of home by looking for his mother who he considers to be his home. Telemachus in The Odyssey shows home when he decides to go find his father, …show more content…
Odysseus left his home to go fight in the Trojan War.
He eventually went back home after twenty years of leaving. However, he had many adventures in between in his journey. At one point he was trapped- willingly- in an island with Calypso. They were together for nearly seven years. During the last few years, Odysseus had a change of heart and decided that he wanted to leave. When Calypso was ordered to let him go, he confessed, “Yet it is true, each day I long for home, long for the sight of home.” ( Homer, 893). This quotes shows that Odysseus doesn’t just want to leave the Calypso’s island, yet he want to go home. WHen he said “home”, he was talking about his wife, Penelope, and his son Telemachus. Odysseus shows the definition of nostos. He is away from home and he is looking forward to going back. He wants to go back to the comfort of his wife and child. He misses them and believes he will feel safe back at his home. His focus on his family and home give him courage to take the risky actions of traveling through the sea while the God, Poseidon hates
him. At the age of five, Enrique’s mother, Lourdes left him to go work in the United States. He lived in Honduras with no father and no job to provide them with enough money to support their living. His mother decided to move to the United States so that she can make more money and send them to her kids. However, Enrique never understood why she left him and his younger sister. He decided to go look for her by passing the U.S. borders. He mentions to the doctor treating him in the beginning of the story, “I want to go to my family. I am alone in my country. I have to go North.” (Nazario, 59). Although Enrique had most of the family in his homeland, he believed that they really weren’t his true family since no one really understood him. He believed the only family he has left is his mother, He thought that if he can go find her and talk to her, she would be the only one who can truly understand him. His goal was was to find her. She was his final destination. She was his home. Telemachus’ father, Odysseus, also left him when he was just an infant. However, Odysseus didn’t abandon his son, but he left to fight in the Trojan War. He was planning on coming back after the war ended. The war lasted ten years and then Poseidon was angered with Odysseus because he thought he didn't need the gods. He then cursed Odysseus from ever seeing his homeland again and it took him another ten years to get back. After Athena convinces Telemachus to go search for his father, he states, “I’m off to sandy Pylos and to Sparta, to see if I can get some information about my dear father’s journey home, if there is any news I can find out.” (Homer, book 2). This quote illustrates the enthusiasm that has gotten into Telemachus that is encouraging him to go find his father. His father was once part of his life before he left to war. Odysseus was there when his son was born. He is part of his son’s home. In The Odyssey and Greek mythology, home may not be a literal place, but a comfort. In Enrique’s Journey, home is Enrique’s goal which is his mother. These character go through an emotionally family to find the ones they love and miss. The ones that they know they can’t live without therefore they risk the consequence and just go out to look for them. Everyone has their own home. It might not be somewhere on can live in but it can be someone one can love.
Once Odysseus has served enough time in a place against his will, he would be determined to leave that place. Odysseus’ journey towards home was now going to be able to be finished. For seven years Calypso held him prisoner on the island of Ogygia and he was determined to leave and see to the rest of his journey. Calypso agrees to let him go and she gives Odysseus some advice and guidance saying, "Only I will not aid [you] on [your] way, for I have no ships fitted with oars, nor crews to bear [you] over the broad oceanridges; but I will freely give [you] counsel and not hide how [you] may come unharmed to [your] own native land"(47). Calypso recognizes Odysseus’ greatness. Calypso says she will give some advice, but Odysseus will have to prove his greatness by making his own ship and understand how he will make it home.
While with Calypso Odysseus relies upon the gods to decide whether he shall return home or if he is fated to stay with the nymph goddess. Though Odysseus is powerful amongst mortal men his attempts to free himself from Calypso’s island prove to be in vain. Instead, Odysseus must wait, for "…in the gods’ lap it lies to say if he shall come and wreak revenge in his halls…" (6). Odysseus must bow to the gods’ wishes and it is Athena, rather then Odysseus himself, who convinces mighty Zeus to free Odysseus and set him upon his journey home. Athena pleads Odysseus’ cause to the gods upon Olympus and beseeches her father begging that "…if it now please the blessed gods that wise Odysseus shall return to his own home…" (2) then she will aid him in this journey. Were it not for Athena’s intervention, Odysseus might never have returned to his native land and seen his dear Ithica once more.
Throughout their stories, we got to experience the struggles they went through in pursuit of their journey and their loss of home. In the Odyssey, home is the place where you live. It is where your family resides, where your house is located, and where people know you. It is a physical place. One of the most important themes in the Odyssey was hospitality.
Home was a prevalent concept in Ancient Greece. Not only was there a goddess of the hearth and home, Hestia, but hospitality towards others was highly stressed. Home was regarded as a place to escape from chaos in the outside world. Homer and Euripides in The Odyssey and Medea, respectively, use the motif of home to show the difference in an individual’s public manner versus their personal, more natural manner. This difference is caused by the different levels of comfort individuals have in different settings. Specifically, the two works portray the difference through experience of the characters, mistrust developed towards others, and the maintenance of dual identities.
Odysseus wouldn’t of taken ten years after the Trojan war to get home if it wasn’t for his prideful trait. Pride causes Odysseus suffering all throughout the book. For example, once Odysseus was on his way off the island of the Cyclops, the epic says “I would not heed them in my glorying spirit, but let my anger flare and yelled: “Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes son, whose home’s on Ithaca.” After Odysseus and his men escape Cyclopes island, Odysseus pride kicks in and he tells off the Cyclop that he blinded. Telling the Cyclop his real identity, and his business. The Cyclop prayed to his father Poseidon (sea god), which Poseidon is still upset and still hold a grudge towards Odysseus, because Odysseus did not thank the gods after he won the Trojan war, and because of his pride, he said he did it all on his own. This would only cause more trouble for Odysseus and his journey home to extend
Throughout the Odyssey, Homer presents the reader with certain clues about what Odysseus feels his homecoming should (but not neccessarily will) be like. First of all, Odysseus wants to return to Ithaka. Homer goes as far as having Odysseus describe Ithaka: "There is a mountain there that stands tall, leaf-trembling Neritos, and there are islands settled around it, lying one very close to another. There is Doulichion and Same, wooded Zakynthos, but my island lies low and away, last of all on the water…" (Bk. 9, ln. 21-25). Kalypso lives on island, which may indeed resemble Ithaka. In this way, Homer begins to alert the reader that this scene may be a false homecoming. But, simply the fact that Kalypso lives on an island is not enough evidence to draw the conclusion that this may foreshadow Odysseus’s true homecoming. Other evidence is needed, and Homer provides it for us. Odysseus expects to return to his family and to the way of life which he is accustomed to. For the most part, Kalypso treats him as he is used to being treated—there is a certain sense of familiarity here. Returning from ten years of war with Troy and at least several years at sea, Odysseus wants to return to the comfort of home. Her cave has ...
Usually, soldiers from Trojan War will not make it back home. However, in The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus leaves Troy for his journey to Ithaca, his homeland; ends up on the island of The Cyclops where his journey begins. Once reaches Hades, Tiresias the blind prophet tells Odysseus his prophecy of returning back home. Odysseus fatal flaws such as being boastful, not processing his mind through, and being tempted leads to his downfall causing him to take longer returning to Ithaca, Odysseus’s homeland.
Eden, the heavenly garden of legend, was offered to man as a place to call home where he can live peacefully. Yet man’s idyllic home becomes tainted as he slowly succumbs to his carnal desires and tarnishes the land with his loss of innocence. In relation to the fall of Eden, the promise of home, in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, drives George to choose between preserving his friend’s dream for finding home by killing him or revealing the world’s kill or be killed doctrine. The escape from the vicious circle of predation in order to reach the idyllic place of home is the driving factor in Odysseus’ journey home, in the Odyssey, by Homer, as he faces many adversities in reaching a place where he is the ultimate predator safe from the machinations
Imagine returning home from both a mentally and physically demanding battle, only to realize the most challenging task yet is to face the task of fitting in with the ordinary. A soldier can never truly return home to join a society. One can return from battle in their physical state, though both their mentality and perspective of the world cannot be restored to what once was. The scars and numerous hardships associated with war change a person beyond their appearing attributes, profoundly affecting the mind and soul; a previous life is never the same when an individual returns as a drastically different character. Within The Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by Stanley Lombardo, the effects of conflict demonstrate how an individual can be greatly distanced from their once familiar society. Illustrated by Odysseus and his encounters home from war, one cannot be found when lost in the psyche and spirit, the world cannot be perceived in the same sanguine demeanor when used as a foundation
middle of paper ... ... In Homer’s Odyssey, both Odysseus and his son Telemachus embark on long, difficult journeys; Odysseus trying to return from Troy to his home in Ithaca, escaping Calypso and the island of Ogygia, and Telemachus from Ithaca to Pylos and Sparta in search of his lost father. While The Odyssey tells of the courage both men demonstrate during their respective travels, their quests are the results of the intentions and desires of gods. Odysseus is trapped in exile on Ogygia by the will of Poseidon, whose anger Odysseus attracts when he blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, and by the love of Calypso, who wishes to make Odysseus her husband.
The relationship between Odysseus and his wife Penelope is one of loyalty, love, and faith. Both characters are driven by these characteristics. Odysseus displays his loyalty in his constant battle to get home to his wife. This love helps him persevere through the many hardships that he encounters on his journey home. Odysseus spent 20 years trying to return to his home in Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. Along the way he manages to offend both gods and mortals, but through his intelligence, and the guidance of Athena, he manages to finally return home. There he discovers that his home has been overrun by suitors attempting to win Penelope’s hand in marriage. The suitors believed that Odysseus was dead. Odysseus and his son, Telemachus,
Odysseus, at the beginning, is very determines to get home and would do whatever it took to get there. In the story of “Calypso, the Sweet Nymph,” Odysseus does everything in his power to get home. Calypso asks him to stay with her, but Odysseus refuses. He kindly puts her down and says “it is true, each day I long to be home,” after being offered immortality (Homer 117-118). This event shows his determination to get back
Everyone has a home. Regardless of its location, it is a place of acceptance and belonging. In a sense it’s where the heart is. Though in The Odyssey, the concept of home is blurry and for the most part incomplete, it is the most important thing to Odysseus, and he is willing to go through utter hell to return to his home.
The Odyssey is a story of Odysseus and his journey home, his homecoming. Therefore, it must end when he has arrived home. Home is a location where one is recognized, accepted, and feels
Throughout the book every time and after he conquers the new challenges Odysseus answers the question, which is repeated throughout, with a different answer. Each time he conquers a challenge on his journey home he learns a new lesson towards humility and answers with a new perspective. “‘I am no god,’ said the patient, good Odysseus. ‘Why do you take me for an immortal? But I am your father, on whose account you have endured so much sorrow and trouble and suffered persecution at men’s hand.’”(P 214 L 186-189) Although he is viewed by many people as very god-like Odysseus realizes that he is an ordinary man and is not a god. Odysseus’ desire to return home is another example that makes him an everyman. In this epic tale the word home had a double meaning for the hero. Home was where his family was and where he wanted to be. The physical element of being home and with his family was a huge deal for him. The other meaning of home was being safe and secure. His aspiration to return home and to return to his safety in sometimes shows that he is also a rather weak man. It is a human instinct to want to go home and stay safe instead of always being brave and