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Literary analysis essays on the odyssey
Odyssey and the hero's journey
Odysseus long journey home
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Both the "Odyssey" and "Back From War, But Not Really Home " depict the concept of grief by the description of the characters emotions. For instance in the odyssey Odysseus washes up on new and strange lands. This land that Odysseus washed up on was the home of the Phaecians. The Phaecians treated him well and fed Odysseus. Ironically they tried to entertain him by telling the tales of the Trojan war. Odysseus the brave hero cried, he was grieving.
I feel the literature piece "Back From War, But Not Really Home" also depicts the concept of grief by demonstrating excellently the prospective of a veteran soldier returning home. In times of war soldiers have a basic and pessimistic mentality. This mentality being everyone will
The war had a lot of emotional toll on people it destroyed their personal identity, their moral/humanity, the passion to live was lost and the PDS they will suffer post war, resulting in the soldiers to understand what war is really about and what is covered up. There are scenes that support the thesis about the war like "As for the rest, they are now just names without faces or faces without names." Chapter 2, p. 27 which show how the soldiers have emotional detached themselves from life. Also, when the novel says “I saw their living mouths moving in conversation and their dead mouths grinning the taut-drawn grins of corpses. Their living eyes I saw, and their dead eyes still-staring. Had it not been for the fear that I was going crazy, I would have found it an interesting experience, a trip such as no drug could possibly produce. Asleep and dreaming, I saw dead men living; awake, I saw living men dead.” Which to me again shows how the soldiers are change throughout the war losing the moral and humanity. Lastly what he says “ I’m not scared of death anymore and don 't care whether I live of die” is the point where I notice Phillips change in
In "In Back From War,But Not Really Home" by Caroline Alexander, and "The Odyssey by homer both experience grief in their characters . survival , hope , and pain are the themes in the literature pieces .
Odysseus shows that he has PTSD through re-experiencing and hyper arousal of emotions. During Odysseus’ travel home he experiences hyper arousal of emotions when he slaughters the suitors for merely nothing, as well as not being able to control his emotions or actions. “ How could he? In that revelry amid his throng of friends who would imagine a single foe---though a strong foe indeed---could dare to bring deaths pain on him and darkness on his eyes?”(955.240). “ Odysseus’ arrow hit him under the chin and punched up to the feathers through his throat.” (955.245). There was no struggle that had ensued beforehand and even though Odysseus had killed the suitor he had prominently thought against it the arrow had released suddenly and the thought
In book IX of Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus ventures into the isle of the Kyklopes. Here he encounters a loutish and cannibalistic Kyklops named Polyphemos. The events that occur as a result of this encounter reveal much about Odysseus's heroic characteristics. Odysseus possesses composure in the face of danger, prowess in devising clever plans of action, and the ability to lead others in the execution of his well-conceived plans of action; all of which appear in direct opposition to Polyphemos's simplistic and brutish nature. In these events, Odysseus is not only contrasted with Polyphemos but also with his crew. Odysseus's desire for glory separates him from his crew whose chief desire is a safe return home. In the end, his prideful quest for grandeur dulls the greatness of his deeds and causes the downfall of him and his crew.
Many soldiers who come back from the war need to express how they feel. Many do it in the way of writing. Many soldiers die in war, but the ones who come back are just as “dead.” Many cadets come back with shell shock, amputated arms and legs, and sometimes even their friends aren’t there with them. So during World War I, there was a burst of new art and writings come from the soldiers. Many express in the way of books, poems, short stories and art itself. Most soldiers are just trying to escape. A lot of these soldiers are trying to show what war is really like, and people respond. They finally might think war might not be the answer. This is why writers use imagery, irony and structure to protest war.
Often through great literature, there is an epic hero. In the Odyssey, Homer tells the journey of one man’s journey home from the Trojan War. The protagonist of the epic poem Odysseus is often regarded as a great hero. However, Odysseus is not quite the glorious soldier that people often see him as. Odysseus shows that he is an antihero through his pride, disloyalty, and bloodthirstiness.
In Book X of The Odyssey, Odysseus is still telling the Phaeacians about his long journey. There he is picking up the part where he stayed on the island where, “Aeolus hosted [him] one entire month” (Fagles 231). While leaving this island, Aeolus gifted Odysseus with a sack of wind, to make his way back home. While on the ship for nine days and nights, one the tenth night, Odysseus became sleepy, so he slept. While sleeping, his crew mates became aware of the sack that Aeolus gave him thinking it was a treasure, Odysseus was holding out on them. So with all the crewmates curiosity, “they loosed the sack and all the winds burst out” (Fagles 232). Odysseus suddenly woke up, while the winds blew the ship back to Aeolus’s island. Aeolus justifies that the immortals hate Odysseus because of this bad misfortune.
There are many lessons that can be learned from reading Homer's The Iliad. One of which is understanding the stages of grief. One can literally watch Achilles go through all five stages when he morns the death of his comrade Patroclus. Achilles moves through Denial and Isolation, Depression, Anger, Bargaining and Acceptance in the short time after his close friends death.
“Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given,” (1.32-34) is a simple quote reminding us the entities in charge of all characters in the poem The Odyssey – the gods. Hubris, or excessive human pride, is most detested by the gods and likewise is most punishable by them. The Odyssey is a story about Odysseus and Telemachus, two heroes who throughout their adventures meet new people and face death many times. Telemachus goes to find his father after he learns from Athena that he is still alive. The two meet, and Odysseus attempts to go back to Ithaca after he was lost at sea, and on his way there becomes one of the most heroic characters in literature as we know it. Like all heroic characters, Odysseus began to display hubris as he learned how true of a hero he was. James Wyatt Cook, a historian and an expert on The Odyssey, wrote about how hubris can affect the characters that display it. He says, “Because Homer’s Odyssey is essentially comic, that episode [opened wind bag destroys ship] is only one of a series of setbacks Odysseus experiences before reaching his home in Ithaca and recovering his former kingdom and his family. Such, however, is not the case for those who display hubris with tragic outcomes.” (Cook 1) Initially, Odysseus learns about Aias who died as a cause of the excessive pride he portrays. Proteus warns Odysseus when he says, “…and Aias would have escaped doom, though Athena hated him, had he not gone widely mad and tossed outa word of defiance; for he said that in despite of the gods he escaped the great gulf of the sea, and Poseidon heard him…...
Temptations of Odysseus Odysseus: a hero in every way. He is a real man, skilled in the sports, handy with a sword and spear, and a master of war strategy. Most of the challenges and adventures in his return voyage from Troy show us this even if we had no idea of his great heroic stature and accomplishments in the Trojan war. I found in my reading of the Odyssey that most of the trials the gods place upon him are readily faced with heroic means. These challenges are not necessarily welcomed by Odysseus but accepted as part of his role.
In The Odyssey, the goddess Calypso offers Odysseus immortality so that he would stay with her and not leave in pursuit of his family. The question being raised is, “If I, like Odysseus, was given the choice, would I choose to remain human? Why or why not?” This question is incredibly complex. Part of the decision would be the immortality issue. Would I like to live forever and not age or live a normal mortal life? To look at it fully, I have to look at all of its parts. To say “like Odysseus” is to say that I have family that I am trying to return to, a wife and a son, and not to mention an entire island that is mine. Another issue that I would have to raise, would be a moral issue. Leaving a wife and a son for another woman would
...is story, Hemingway brings the readers back the war and see what it caused to human as well as shows that how the war can change a man's life forever. We think that just people who have been exposed to the war can deeply understand the unfortunates, tolls, and devastates of the war. He also shared and deeply sympathized sorrows of who took part in the war; the soldiers because they were not only put aside the combat, the war also keeps them away from community; people hated them as known they are officers and often shouted " down with officers" as they passing. We have found any blue and mournful tone in this story but we feel something bitter, a bitter sarcasm. As the war passing, the soldiers would not themselves any more, they became another ones; hunting hawks, emotionless. They lost everything that a normal man can have in the life. the war rob all they have.
Odysseus portrays himself as anything but a hero throughout Homer’s The Odyssey. Odysseus goes through his life believing he is the best. He has no regard for anyone’s feelings but his own, and he believes nothing and no one can harm him, not even the gods. Odysseus feels he is always the leader and no one can tell him otherwise. Odysseus should not be considered a hero because he portrays himself as a selfish man that failed his crew, and is controlled by his hubris.
The idea of a true hero is varied from person to person, because each viewpoint has a different idea of the personality that makes one a hero. There have been many fiction and non-fiction heroes that show different character traits, which influence people’s definitions of a hero. However, each person’s unique thought about a hero still focuses about one central idea: a hero must prove himself in order to earn his heroic status. This is the cornerstone of all the opinions about heroes because heroes have to show their heroism in order to become who they are in the end. At the beginning they are inexperienced, ordinary people who go on their adventures, and face their fears and weaknesses, but they develop greatly throughout these journeys. After comprehending what true heroism is and following it only then will they become heroes even though each of them has different traits. In the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus gains the title of hero during his journey back to Ithaka, from Troy, by proving to be one. It is through his characteristics and experiences that he becomes the well developed man at the end of the book. In truth, because of his confidence, loyalty, and difficult struggles, Odysseus becomes a genuine hero to the people he defended.
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.