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Analysis of odysseus character
Analysis of odysseus character essay
Analysis of odysseus character
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis of odysseus character
Analysis of odysseus character essay
Analysis of odysseus character
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Odyssey Many people deem Odysseus to be an archetype hero. But was he really? Sure, he won many wars, but did he show the characteristics that matter? No!
Both the Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? focus on the homecoming of a hero, however both vary in how the character is greeted upon return. Within the Odyssey the hero, Odysseus, returns home to find suitors attempting to woo his wife and gain her hand in marriage. After which, bloodbath ensues and there is a glorious scene in which Odysseus defeats the suitors is described as “a lion moving off from feeding on a farmyard ox, his whole chest and both sides of his muzzle caked with blood”, (Book XXI, lines 500-502). This line shows that Odysseus’s return is glorious, showing him as a soldier who has fought hard to return home.
Even though they had the same goal the people who helped them, the children they wanted to see, and the challenges they faced once they got there were really different. Both Odysseus and Everett attempted to get back home to their wife with crews that were very unlike,but had some similarities to each other. Odysseus had many men 600 to be exact and they knew to an extent what they were getting into. Each one of Odysseus’s men in The Odyssey choose to go or were forced to go to the Trojan War, but they knew the end goal of beating the Trojans.
Odysseus and Everett are both on a journey to get home. In The Odyssey, Odysseus has been away for a long time, twenty years to be exact. He was at the Trojan War for ten years and it took him ten more to get home. In O Brother Where Art Thou, Everett got away from the other prisoners that he was chained with so he can go home and win his wife back. The two men are vain.
Odysseus for the first portion of the book had gotten himself captured by a Cyclops, not on purpose, the giant was unkind and threatened Odysseus and his men to eat them prompting Odysseus to trick the Cyclops offering it wine for which he downed the bottle of wine, the Cyclops has the lowest tolerance of any creature being loopy and ignorant after One human sized bottle. Odysseus then proceeds to blind the Cyclops And escape on a ram tying his men to the sheep and he escaped underneath the ram the Cyclops Knew that his ram was lagging behind the herd normally being the first one out the ram was the last. The Cyclops didn’t suspect a thing, he Said and I quote, “Sweet cousin ram, why lag behind the rest in the night cave? You never linger so, but graze before them all, and go afar to sweet crop grass, and take your stately way leading along streams,
Personal strengths and weaknesses are magnified during the course of a journey. Some strengths that were magnified during the course of Odysseus’ journey were courage and self-discipline. There were many instances in which he proves to be a courageous man. In the Cyclops story, Odysseus knows that whatever lives on the island he has arrived to is “a towering brute” and a “wild man ignorant of civility” and yet he decides to venture into the cave.
Character traits are a person's personality and how they respond to different situations. In the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, the hero Odysseus endured many obstacles to return to his home in Ithaca. The way he reacted to these obstacles showed his character traits and who he really was. The hero Odysseus is known to be a strong man that shows cleverness, bravery and leadership which lead to his successes and failures throughout his journey. Cleverness is gathered with age and wisdom.
A similarity we can see in both stories is that both Odysseus and Don Quixote are fighting against monsters for the people they love: Odysseus is fighting against monsters for his home, his wife and son. He stayed many years traveling and defeating mythological creatures just with one objective: return home, to his so loved Penelope and his beloved son. Don Quixote, as Odysseus, is fighting against monsters and (sometimes) defeating them to prove to Dulcinea,, his most loved woman, that he is worthy of her, he deserves her love, and he will do everything for her to see it. An example of his effort for love is when Don Quixote almost kill the Biscayan, and the ladies that were watching the fight agree to tell Dulcinea Del Toboso of his victory, even not knowing who she is (English 1A book page 253). However, more than fighting for their love, both protagonists
A hero is anyone that has the obligation to do what most people wouldn’t; heroes would set aside their private interests and concerns for the good of others. In Reagan’s speech about the then recent tragedy of the shuttle Challenger, he commends them as they “...were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes … The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.”
First, Odysseus and Everett share an abundance of epic hero qualities. Everett shows his courage when he disguised as KKK to free Tommy. This parallels to when Odysseys and his crew hide under the sheep and defeats the mighty Polyphemus. Everett is a cunning, quick-tongued, sharp leader, which is the same as Odysseus. Also, Pete and Delmar appear to be as dumb as the crew written in the Odyssey.
I love that Margaret Atwood chose to tell Penelope’s side of the story through Penelope’s point of view. It definitely makes the narrative of Odysseus and his journey much more interesting. However, the change in point of view causes the reader to question who is telling the true story – Homer or Penelope? Personally, I am having a hard time choosing what to believe and what not to believe; more specifically, I am conflicted over the character of Odysseus. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is portrayed as a hero whose only flaw is his pride.
In the epic The Odyssey the hero, Odysseus shows many traits but I think one of the best traits he shows is self-sacrifice. The first episode where Odysseys shows loyalty is the cyclops episode. He had put his life on the line very much in this episode.
In what ways does Odysseus develop as a character during the time of the story? Does he develop at all? Odysseus does not change a lot during the course of the narrative, especially related to Telemachus, who undergoes a passage from naive childhood to manhood. Odysseus, already an important soldier at the beginning of the Iliad, continues his role as the most intelligent and courageous of all the Achaean heroes. But this is not to say that Odysseus exhibits no signs of growth.
In the book The Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, is a man who is loved and respected by many. In the beginning of the book, we learn that Odysseus has left on a journey and, since it has been many years since his departure, many people assume that he has passed. On his journey, he portrays his many traits, not all of them being good ones either. Some of his good traits include his cunning, bravery, and hard work ethic. On the other hand, his negative traits are his excessive pride, immense curiosity, and rather large temper.
After the time spent with the Phoenicians, Odysseus made his way home as quickly as possible. Traveling in a small boat, that was a gift from King Alcinous, at the fastest speed possible, foregoing all thoughts of adventures and any other side quests that he might do on the way. The waves rocked the tiny craft back and forth, the blue water frothing against the prow. After hours of staring into the distance, a giant wave from the port side caught Odysseus’ attention. He turned the small boat towards the wave to avoid capsizing, after riding the wave for a few minutes, it dissipated and he turned back towards Ithaca and went on his way.