People deal with barriers every single day. The barrier may be small and insignificant, or it may be critical and life changing. Barriers are essential in life because they test a person’s endurance and ability to get up and move past a barrier they are facing. The book ‘The Odyssey’ is essentially all about the struggles of Odysseus, a Greek warrior, and young Telemachus, son of Odysseus. The barrier that caught my eye the most is Telemachus struggling to prove his ability, because of his young age. In ‘The Odyssey’ Telemachus is seen multiple times struggling to prove his capability especially in front of the suitors. The characters in this book all assume that because Odysseus is not present, Telemachus is the easiest to deal with and they continuously disregard him, as they try to woo his mother, Penelope. This takes a toll on Telemachus emotionally and he starts feeling incompetent and conscious about his skills and authority in the house because of all the mockery and rejection that he faces. The suitors are seen disregarding Telemachus in Book 1 when Telemachus tells the suitors to leave his palace and Antinous responds by saying “Well, Telemachus, only the gods could teach you to sound so …show more content…
Without, barriers one will not learn how to get over struggles and learn to go on with life despite what they are struggling with. The biggest barrier for Telemachus is he is overlooked and made fun of by the suitors because he is young and inexperienced. The constant shaming makes him uneasy about his abilities and strength and makes him constantly doubtful. Just like Telemachus high school students and employees can also feel insecure about their skills if they are mocked for attempting. There is a lot of barriers in ‘The Odyssey’ that relate to real life and a lot of lessons that are taught in the book for this particular topic a lesson to learn is that one should never make fun of others for trying and doing their
In book II of the odyssey Telemachus is about to start his journey to find his father. In lines 49-85 Telemachus is beginning to give his speech during the assembly. In this speech he is trying to get some people to help him on his voyage to find his dad. For the simple fact that everything is falling apart because Telemachus mother has attracted suitors. Also Telemachus knows his family doesn’t know how to defend themselves. Although it may seem as if Telemachus words aren’t registering to the people, they are really taking his words into consideration.
Over their travels in the epic The Odyssey, both Odysseus’ and his son Telemachus’ adventures were parallel but at the same time different. These travels led them both to grow and change drastically, and both learned some very important life lessons over the course of this epic.
Through these voyages certain parallels are drawn concerning Odysseus and Telemachos: the physical journeys, the mental preparations they have produced, and the resulting change in emotional makeup. These play an immense role in the way the story is set up, due to the purpose of each character's journey, their personal challenges, and the difficulties that surround them.
Throughout the last books of The Odyssey Homer tells us how Odysseus restores his relationships with his friends and relatives at Ithaca. Perhaps one of the most revealing of these restoration episodes is Odysseus' re-encounter with his son, Telemachus. This re-encounter serves three main purposes. First, it serves to portray Telemachus' likeness to his father in the virtues of prudence, humility, patience, and planning. Secondly, it is Odysseus' chance to teach his son to be as great a ruler as Odysseus himself is. Lastly, Homer uses this re-encounter to emphasize the importance of a family structure to a society. To be able to understand the impact that this meeting had on Odysseus it is necessary to see that Telemachus has grown since his first appearances in the poem and obviously since his last contact with his father; Odysseus left Telemachus as an infant now their relationship is a man to man relationship rather than a man to child relationship.
The Hero’s Journey is never an easy one. This particular journey, as detailed in Homer’s The Odyssey, is one of struggle, loss, heartache, pain, growth and triumph. It is comprised of many steps that Odysseus has to overcome and battle through in order to achieve his final goal of reaching his home and his loved ones. From the Call to Adventure to the Freedom or Gift of living, Odysseus conquered them all. The story begins in the middle of the story, as many of the oral Greek traditions did, with the Journey of Telemachus to find his father. Although Telemachus has not yet met his father, it is almost as if they are journeying together, where the end of both of their journeys results in being reunited. Telemachus journeys from being a boy to becoming a man, while out in the sea Odysseus is battling Poseidon to return to the home that wife that he loves and the home he has left behind.
Temptations that Odysseus faced reflects experiences that happened in my own life. Every Time a person enters my home, I make them feel welcomed and not uncomfortable. This connects with the Odyssey because hospitality is a good policy I go by. “It is our luck to come here; here we stand beholden for your help, or any gifts you give as custom is to honor strangers.” (Homer 9.170-72) Basically, you should have good behavior to your peers. After this, obstacles are what you can overcome.
Right at the beginning of The Odyssey, the reader is shown the hospitality that Telemachus has. Athena arrives, disguised, and he invites her into his home by saying: "'Greetings, stranger! / Here in our house you'll find a royal welcome. / Have supper first, then tell us what you need'" (1.144-46). His address to Athena shows right away that he is an extremely hospitable character. Despite his house being overridden by the suitors, he is still welcoming of this stranger. When she is about to leave, he offers that she stay longer and wants to treat her with honor (1.352-60). Telemachus has no idea who Athena is, yet he still shows extreme generosity towards her. Telemachus is a perfect role model for xenia. Even though the suitors have been pushing him around for years, he still finds it in his heart to provide strangers a lovely experience when they visit him. It seems as though he has seen how terrible it is to be treated with bad xenia and he in turn wants to treat his guests the way that he hopes to be treated.
Telemachus has many experiences on his journey to manhood. In Ithaca while Odysseus is gone Penelope is being plagued with suitors asking for her hand in marriage. Telemachus sees what a nuisance they are to his mother, and how much they are taking from his father’s palace. He wants to put a stop to this and comes to the conclusion that he must find his father, or at least some information
Page 89: Ask students, “How does Telemachus assert himself? To his mother? To the suitors?”
We all face obstacles in our life like Odysseus did. A common obstacle in life is a person that you clash and don’t get along with. A good analogy for this in Odysseus’ quest was when he had to evade the Cyclops. Also, people don’t always evade the people and problems that get in their way, but face them. One case of this is when Odysseus had to confront Antinous.
In The Odyssey, the distance between father and son is also important, and is the means by which the two men establish and define their relationship with one another.
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 Symbolism of Homer's Odyssey Throughout Homer's The Odyssey, many tangible symbols are used to represent abstract ideas. Each symbol that Homer uses has two meanings. The double meanings of these symbols are used to represent Odysseus and Telemachus as they strive to meet each other. While each symbol has a meaning that represents the growth of Telemachus, each one also represents, by another meaning, the growth and development of Odysseus. When they meet for the first time, the symbols, and the character traits that they represent confluence, and the resemblance between Odysseus and Telemachus becomes complete.
Odysseus’ son; Penelope, Odysseus’ wife; and the suitors, prominent young men of Ithaca who attempt to marry Penelope. Telemakhos is the first of these characters to be introduced. In lines 1-14 of book II he is introduced as a prominent young man as he enters the assembly “spear in hand, with two quick hounds at heel; Athena lavished on him a sunlit grace that held the eye of the multitude. Old men made way for him as he took his father’s chair.” Despite Telemakhos’ prominent figure in the opening lines of this book, it soon becomes obvious that he is not an extremely powerful figure. Telemakhos intends to expel the suitors from his home but he is not strong enough to fight them. It is important that the reader meets Telemakhos in the beginning because he is the main character in the Ithaca plot and also he must overcome obstacles at home foreshadowing the obstacles his father faces later in the epic.
In the first four books of Homer’s The Odyssey, the character of Telemachus undergoes a dramatic evolution. When Homer first introduces him, he appears to be an unsophisticated youth, wallowing in self-pity. After the goddess Athena intervenes, he becomes, seemingly, a man of courage, strength, and resolve. On closer analysis, however, one remains to wonder if this transformation is genuine. The rapidity of his change in personality and the assistance he requires from the goddess at every stage in his journey suggests that he is not yet a hero in the mold of his father, the great Odysseus.