Unchanging Human Nature: A Study of Weaknesses and Strengths

A Message on Human Nature and Its Weaknesses

“Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this philosophy to learn the wisdom from and none of them as wrongs will be avenged.” Abraham Lincoln dictates that human nature is not able to change, but it won’t stop the goal of trying to perfect those flaws until the “future great national trial’’.For example, Odysseus until the end of The Odyssey, when he changed and acknowledged his flaws . What Homer shows us about human nature through Odysseus’s relationships is that humans are inconsiderate, disloyal, and self-centered.

Odysseus was inconsiderate in his relationships throughout the epic poem, and it always came back and bit him the behind.

The most obvious example throughout the book is Odysseus's stubbornness not to praise the gods after winning the Trojan War. This shows that humans don’t consider anyone when great things happen and take credit for themselves. Inconsideration is also shown when Odysseus chooses not to listen to his shipmates tell Odysseus to stop provoking Polyphemus. A shipmate warns Odysseus by insisting,”Godsake, Captain! / Why bait the beast again? Let him alone!” (248-29), yet Odysseus kept on making fun of Polyphemus. What Homer is trying to show us is that people get so caught up in the happiness of winning, that it’s hard to remember that sometime one isn’t the only one who does all the work and to recognize the others the also

contributed.
Other than inconsideration, another human weakness that Homer acknowledges is disloyalty through Odysseus’s relationships. The main example of disloyalty was when Odysseus was disloyal to his wife by being unfaithful to his wife with Calypso for no reason, unlike when he slept with Circe to save his men. This shows that people aren’t willing to resist the strongest temptations. A less obvious example was that disloyalty was shown is when Odysseus didn’t give Elpenor a proper burial in the “Circe” episode and forgets about him until Elpenor reappeared in the underworld. He reacted to seeing Elpenor by saying:
One shade came first- Elpenor, of our company
who lay unburied still on the wide earth
as we left him- dead in Circe’s hall,
untouched, unmourned, when other cares compelled us.
Now that I saw him there I wept with pity… (578-82)
Odysseus was disloyal by forgetting about his dead shipmate and not properly burying or mourning him. Homer wants us to see how one will never fully be loyal to our loved ones in the strongest temptations, until they reappear to us and makes one feel pitiful or guilty by not helping them.
On top of inconsideration and disloyalty, the most obvious weakness that Odysseus shows in his relationships is that he is self-centered. Being self-centered is what got him in trouble with the gods. For instance, he took all the credit for tricking Polyphemus by bragging:
‘Cyclopes,
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.’ (456-60)
He didn’t share any of the credit with the gods or his crew. As a result, Poseidon, Polyphemus’s father and god of the seas, targeted Odysseus and made him suffer more. Another way Odysseus showed that he is self-centered is by blaming Zeus, the god of gods, for letting him sleep while his crew killed Helios’s cattle. The message here is that human beings are always self-centered and they bask about their glory, but little do they know that they are making ourselves a bigger target than they intend to. For example, when a person steals something from someone else and blames it on an innocent person, they are being self-centered.
Recall the quote on human nature by Abraham Lincoln that says it can’t change.

Since one can’t change one’s nature then one should learn from it in order to become better people. We will always be disloyal, self-centered, and inconsiderate, even if we don’t notice at times. Homer shows us all of these faults through Odysseus’s relationships. Inconsideration is shown when Odysseus doesn’t listen to advice given to him or recognizing others that helped him win challenges, overcome temptations, etc. Homer shows us disloyalty when Odysseus was unfaithful to his wife and forgetting about his dead friends. Most importantly, Homer shows us that we are self-centered through Odysseus blaming others for his own mistakes and by taking all credit for victories. Yet, at the end, when he recognized all of his weaknesses, Odysseus became a better and understanding

man.