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Overcoming obstacles in life examples
Overcoming life obstacles essays
Overcoming life obstacles essays
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Student Sample Obstacles are an Important Aspect of Life Adversity enhances ones’ positive characteristics due to the provision of an ideal environment for establishing integrity and developing a mature mindset. This conclusion is valid because people tend to learn from their mistakes, thus gaining a broader perspective on life. Often, calamity serves as a catalyst for the unveiling of latent talents; literature provides the venue for plots that tend to revolve around overcoming challenges and hardships. Notably, in the epic poem, “The Odyssey,” the heroic Odysseus has to overcome many hardships. His survival and return home tells the story of a fallible man who makes mistakes, but learns many lessons along the way. After enduring the …show more content…
There are a plethora of historical figures who have surmounted their obstacles and achieved their goal. For example, Martin Luther King, a famous, revered individual, had his own impediments prior to his success; to a greater extent than most, his youth consisted of physical and verbal abuse on a daily basis. Though he lived in a time of overwhelming racism, King bested his obstacles and called for order and for the equal rights of the black race. Throughout, his bleak and bitter past served as a motivator for him to lead the United States into unity. This is to say that his goal of ubiquitous equality was a notion that he may not have had if certain hardships were not prevalent in his youth. Furthermore, Albert Einstein encountered great adversity during his teen years before he could become one of the most highly regarded scientists in history. In a similar manner to Martin Luther King, Einstein had a rough upbringing, being expelled from high school and denied admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. Rather than succumbing to a negative outlook on life, he instead decided to persevere and ended up prospering, as indicated by his Nobel Prize. In the event that such challenges did not occur, it is probable that Einstein would have retained a sophomoric mentality without developing the grit necessary to become a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Therefore, we can see that hardships confronted by people develop them into stronger human
Throughout literature characters have relied upon entities greater then themselves to furnish them with aid as they meet the many challenges they must face. The Odyssey is a tale of Odysseus’ epic journey and the many obstacles that bar his return home. But Odysseus is not alone in this struggle and receives aid from many gods, especially the clear-eyed goddess Athena. There are times when Odysseus beseeches the gods for aid, but other times he is too foolhardy to receive aid from even the immortal gods. In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus’ journey revolves around the cyclical phases of his dependence, independence and his return to reliance upon the gods’ aid.
Horrendous pain and suffering worthy of masochists is something that any sane person would shy away from. Yet, authors from all eras of time find those experiences pleasing to put down on paper. The Odyssey of Homer, as translated by Allen Mandelbaum, alongside William Golding’s Lord of the Flies are two such works of literature where the author writes about the agonies of their main characters, Odysseus and Ralph, respectively. Odysseus of The Odyssey of Homer and Ralph of Lord of the Flies are two characters who endured the backlash of divine powers and the pain of betrayal, yet they persevered onwards in their journeys towards success, teaching readers it is possible to push on past all of life’s challenges.
Throughout Odysseus’s meandering and consequent homecoming in Ithaca, Homer depicts many different aspects of Odysseus’s personality in his epic poem “The Odyssey”. Although Odysseus is smart, brave, and is a great fighter, in reality, he is an overconfident madman. Throughout Homer’s classic epic, Odysseus uses his skill to overcome many obstacles. However, in each story, overconfidence is always a major theme, and Odysseus’s hubris always causes him to do crazy things. At the end, Odysseus’s arrogance is his fatal flaw, and leads him into trouble.
Odysseus is unique among epic heroes in that his strength comes not from inhuman powers or exceptional physical ability, but mainly from his mind. Odysseus, regularly uses cunning, guile, and superiority of intellect to overcome obstacles. In this paper I will compare Odysseus to other epic heroes, both in terms of character and in terms of responses to crises, comparing his reactions with those of other heroes placed in similar situations.
In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Odysseus’ heroic deeds are recounted through a narrative, written by Homer, that describes his arduous journey of his return from the Trojan war to his homeland of Ithaca. Loyalty, patience, and determination, are necessary traits to survive the perilous, painstaking journey that Odysseus embarks upon to return to his native land. Loyalty is exhibited when Odysseus goes to rescue his crewmen on Kirke’s Island despite the probability of jeopardizing his own life. Odysseus presents patience throughout the entirety of his journey, but most specifically when his crew opens the bag of wind, which causes much regression on the embark homeward. Determination is displayed when Odysseus is on Calypso’s island.
Similar to an elaborate dish, a literary genre consists of multiple necessary “ingredients,” called epic conventions, which classify a text into a particular category. Homer follows an impeccable recipe in his magnificent work. Labeled as an epic, The Odyssey by Homer portrays the Greek hero Odysseus years after his victory in the Trojan War and his awaited journey back to Ithaca. As the plot develops it is evident it is no effortless feat for our hero to return home. The godly Odysseus encounters adversities in the forms of Cyclops, sea monsters, alluring flowers and formidable Greek gods with varying conceptions of him. These characteristics distinguish the Odyssey and its episodes as an epic and bestow Odysseus with the title of an epic
Heroes are found everywhere. They are seen in movies, on television, in books, and in reality. A hero can be anyone from a friend to a fictional character. To be considered a hero, one must make selfless sacrifices, develop and learn, overcome challenges and temptations, and ultimately present their known world with a gift of any kind. Homer’s The Odyssey paints a picture of the supposed savior Odysseus. The irony of Odysseus’ situation is that he really is not the marvelous hero that many who read The Odyssey see him to be. When imagining a great hero, the words of cruel, unfaithful, selfish, or careless never come to mind, but the son of Laertes sets examples for each attribute. Odysseus makes many poor decisions that cause his dislikable traits to highly outweigh his few better ones. Several of his more prominent characteristics are exhibited on numerous accounts. Odysseus cannot possibly earn the title of being a hero because he harbors hubris, he displays a lack of faith, and his self-centeredness causes unfortunate events.
Homer’s The Odyssey chronicles Odysseus’s return home from the Trojan War to reunite with his wife, kingdom, and son. However, Odysseus has been encountering serious difficulties that have prevented him from reaching home for nearly twenty years. These difficulties include various different types of monsters, each of which seems to embody undesirable traits such as laziness or savagery. The Greeks portray creatures with these traits as monsters as an example of the Greeks’ “better” traits and subsequent superiority. Each species of monster within The Odyssey represents one or more qualities that the Greeks have demonized in comparison to themselves.
Success without adversity is impossible. Everyone in life has their ups and downs and nothing in this world is perfect. At some point in life, hardships begin to occur and that’s when the real test begins. Some people rise up and try their absolute best to take a stand against the challenge. Then there are others that would crawl back into their shells, crying for mercy. There should be no excuse for giving up or not putting in the effort. People are only successful in winning the battle of adversity when they are mentally tough. The intense game of adversity can be referred to football.
Mr. Green said, “The real hero’s journey from strength to weakness.” Surprisingly the uniquely unwanted situations created by these phases is the best part of the game called “life.” It is the journey that matters, because the harsh truth is, that the destination of human kind is death. A great example of one of these phases would be a college student graduating and stepping into the real world. The strength in is this particular situation is the college degree that is obtained by the student and just the feeling of being at a good point in life and just the great satisfaction , until of course the weaknesses slowly builds with time in this entirely new phase called reality. Many students come to realize after college that the amount of money they need to pay back in student loans is extremely enormous and that to for a person that doesn’t have a job. On top of that in the real world, you’re nobody with no identity and most the time people just don’t care for you. So you start to feel worthless even with a college degree and you just have no support system to guide you to your comfort zone. However there is good news also. Mr. Green says that due to the situation, it will help a person not be a jerk. Which is always good to have morality on your side. In this stage of life a person has to work hard make his/her identity and become self-motivated to find a great job. Which helps a person grow in their experience in their field. These stages only do well for people and makes them a stronger person. Every phase is like a test once you pass you’re ready to start again on the bottom of the next phase. Then the cycle just repeats and this will help you empathize or even be a mentor to a
While mortals do not unjustly complain about their fates, they fail to acknowledge that they are also responsible for their ill fate, as mortals themselves, possess a sizable degree of control. There is little doubt that Odysseus and his crew are unlucky, but had it not been for their brash decisions they would have reached Ithaca much sooner. After Od...
The Odyssey is an epic that shapes and defines the roles of many great leaders. These leaders are made up of mortals, alive and dead, and immortals. The trip taken by Odysseus is not only a journey of a war hero back to his homeland, but is a journey in all of the characters lives, which develop a better sense of personal identity and selfhood as the epic goes on. It is the many disguises that each character uses that uncover their true identities from their experiences. The revelations of each characters identity are what teach the lessons that Homer is trying to portray to his audience, and what lead to each character’s success in their personal journey. Each character’s identity is constructed by the courage and morality that they reveal, through disguise, by their actions to help or prevent bring Odysseus home. These actions are what make each character who he or she is, whether god or human. Homer uses Odysseus and Athena as the principle identities developed throughout the poem to send his messages.
Homer’s The Odyssey is a Greek story that follows the journey of its primary character, Odysseus, back to his home in Ithaca after the Trojan War. Odysseus encounters many challenges in his journey home, from encounters with Polyphemus the Cyclops, the witch Circe and even the ghosts of dead Greeks. Meanwhile, his household in Ithaca is being threatened by suitors of his wife, Penelope, all wanting to inherit Odysseus’ possessions in the belief that he was already dead. Like many epic heroes, Odysseus possesses many admirable qualities. Three good characteristics of Odysseus are—cleverness, bravery and strength—here are some supporting instances from the epic that demonstrates Odysseus possession of such characteristics.
It may be difficult to understand how the Odyssey, a 2,700 year old epic poem about gods and monsters, could ever symbolize life today. The Odyssey does, however, parallel to a journey of life because of the decisions made by Odysseus and decisions I will make as well as the trials he endured and the challenges I will face. Some of the obstacles I will endure in the future, including high school and college, may not be as serious as the monsters Odysseus had to face, nevertheless, they are still everyday situations that I must learn from.
“The Odyssey” is an epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus and the story of his many travels and adventures. The Odyssey tells the main character’s tale of his journey home to the island of Ithaca after spending ten years fighting in the Trojan War, and his adventures when he returns home and he is reunited with his family and close friends. This literary analysis will examine the story and its characters, relationships, major events, symbols and motifs, and literary devices.