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Literary Analysis in Odyssey
Odysseus characterization
Characteristics of odysseus in the epic
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Recommended: Literary Analysis in Odyssey
THESIS STATEMENT
Throughout the epic the Odyssey the theme like father like son is demonstrated through Telemachus following in his father’s (Odysseus) footsteps.
PURPOSE STATEMENT
It is evident that through extensive research on the Odyssey, Telemachus evolves into a character similar to his father Odysseus in this epic.
INTRODUCTION
Imagine ten grueling years of constant bloodbath at war. After all that horror facing journeying on vicious waters: battling a sea monster, traveling to the underworld, and angry gods attempting to wreak havoc everywhere you go. This is all on a quest to reunite with your loved ones. A brave Greek warrior–Odysseus–encounters all these circumstances. His son yearns for him to return home. This son of his is in a nervous state. He has no father figure in his life and is unable to protect his mother in their precarious situation.
The Odyssey tells the thrilling tale of the clever Greek hero Odysseus. He has many terrifying adventures on his long awaited return to his kingdom, Ithaca. In this epic Odysseus’ son Telemachus becomes the man his father is and demonstrates personality traits Odysseus possesses. Telemachus must overcome his fear to undertake journeys in order to reunite his family. Odysseus and Telemachus together share a love and appreciation for Penelope. They both began as impulsive men and must learn patience in panicky situations later on. “He is like his father Odysseus, in that he is loyal and disgusted by evil. He also, like his father, is willing to go fight for his freedom.” (Pope 45)
Telemachus is being described in comparison to Odysseus – they are equally dedicated in life to Penelope and have a great will to conquer obstacles in their life to reunite with each other.
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...e was unsure about taking his father’s place.
Odysseus learns to act wisely and not impulsively through his adventures. “All his past training in patience, wariness and self-control is needed now to help him play his part…” (Walker 76). From past obstacles Odysseus was required to overcome on his trip home to Ithaca he was grown from acting out impulsively to thinking out strategies before had for attacks and battles.
CONCLUSION
In Homer’s the Odyssey the theme like father like son is demonstrated. Telemachus becomes the man his father (Odysseus) is through acquiring personality traits that he has and evolving in a brave and courageous character, such as his father was. Odysseus and Telemachus both go on journeys to reunite their families; they both have a great love and appreciation for Penelope and transition from being impatient and impulsive to patience.
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.
In Odyssey, Homer creates a parallel between Odysseus and Telemachos, father and son. The two are compared in the poem from every aspect. One parallel was the quest of Telemachos, in correlation with the journey of his father. In this, Odysseus is developed from a childish, passive, and untested boy, to a young man preparing to stand by his father's side. This is directly connected to the voyage of Odysseus, in that they both lead to the same finale, and are both stepping-stones towards wisdom, manhood, and scholarship.
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.
In Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, the main theme is the reunification of the family, as Odysseus struggles to return home and rejoin his wife and son. Throughout the Odyssey, we are shown examples of families: good ones that prosper and bad ones that do not. As Telemakhos struggles to become a man and Odysseus struggles homeward, the concept of healthy family life is stressed. At the end, when all conflicts are resolved and Odysseus is reunited with wife and son, the lesson that a united family can overcome any obstacles is shown and is one that today's families should heed.
Throughout The Odyssey Telemachus grows in character from an unprepared teen to a young man who could one day rule Ithaca. He has many experiences traveling to learn more about his father and many that occur on Ithaca once Odysseus returns. All of these events help to shape him into the assertive young man he becomes.
From the analysis above, although he never fully matches Odysseus either in wisdom or courage, we cannot deny their highly resemblance in initiative, sensitivity and socialization. Influenced by his father not only by hearing the great deeds spread by people but also fight with him for vengeance, he follows his father’s step and comes to his manhood.
The Odyssey also illustrates other relationships where love is of great importance – one of the most emphasized is the father-son relationship between Odysseus and Telemachos. This relationship is a little awkward because they both never really got to know each other but they still care for each other's well being. When Odysseus hears of all the suitors devouring Telemachos's future fortune and mistreating him, he wants to return and revenge the misuse of his family and property. Odysseus, like any parent, also misses his only child while he is at war. Telemachos on the contrary also displays a lot of love for his father. Telemachos leaves Ithaca, nexperienced, to find any knowledge of his father in hope that he is still alive. Telemachos through out most of his life has lacked a father figure and desperately needs that special help and guidance from Odysseus as he becomes a man. Their relationship seems to show how love can give you the strength to carry on.
The Odyssey’s protagonist, Odysseus, King of Ithica, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus was reknown for his craftiness. When Helen is abducted and Menelaus calls upon his allies to honour their oaths and help him to retrieve her. Odysseus tries to avoid going to war by feigning lunacy and starts sowing his fields with salt, as an oracle had prophesied a long-delayed return home for him if he went. However, Palamedes, sent by Menelaus’s brother Agamemnon places his infant son Telemachus in front of his plow. Odysseus, rather than eviscerate his son with rudementary farm equipment, Odysseus reveals his deception and joins the Greeks in their conquest of Troy.
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.
A father and son rejoice together in a tearful moment after many long years. Because Odysseus has not returned home for twenty years since the Trojan War, Telemakhos, son of Odysseus, did not grow up with any fatherly influence. After their joyful reunion, it is made clear of how both of them are very much alike. Even though Telemakhos and Odysseus were separated, Telemakhos showed that he is worthy of being Odysseus’s son. He has the qualities of a great ruler: courage, hospitality, leadership; he looks up to Odysseus as his role model by creating a trustworthy relationship; he is also growing into manhood by asserting his authority. They also have a father and son bonding time which shows that they both act their own father and son roles.
Telemachus family’s honor is in jeopardy since his father Odysseys roaming soul lost somewhere, God knows where in this world and his possible death is unrecognized and undervalued. Because, the uncertainty of tomorrow is not promised, Telemachus fears the worst, that his legendary father’s traces are vanished from the face of earth, leaving poor Telemachus unprotected and with a confusion of his own identity. Telemachus now faces the challenge to own up to his father’s masculinity and fill his void, in order to regain the lost reputation of his father Odysseus. Telemachus only wish, his father death, his people of Achaea, “would have raised his tomb and he’d have won his son great fame for years to come.”
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.
While Odysseus and his son are united and face the world together, Ulysses sees himself and his son as two different people living separate lives. When he returns, Odysseus has a close, personal relationship with his son; he becomes Telemachus' mentor. Odysseus realizes Telemachus' resemblance to himself - both are noble men of action who value justice. Together, they devise a plan to avenge the arrogant suitors who have abused their household for the past three years. Finally, "he [Odysseus] found the whole company lying in heaps in the blood and dust..." (Homer, 22.383). Father and son are victorious together. Conversely, as Ulysses ages, he and his son are disunited. Ulysses is confident that he has trained his son to be a benevolent ruler. He praises Telemachus's patience, gentleness, and prudence - all outstanding qualities that he is lacking. Ulysses acknowledges that he and his son are opposite people. He is adventurous, while Telemachus is sedate. "He works his work, I mine" (Tennyson, Line 43) suggests acceptance of a destiny; the father and son must lead separate lives because of their differences. Despite changing roles the man plays in Telemachus' life, he successfully raises his son to become a respectable leader.
“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.