Comparing The Good Soldier And The Cruelest Journey

In the words of John Steinbeck, a famous author known for writing about social and economic issues “A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip: a trip takes us”. Many famous people include the “what” about journeys, but many don’t include the “why”. The objective of a journey is to change or teach something about the character’s morals, connections between people or about the Earth. Some famous examples of these teachings include The Odyssey by Homer, The Good Soldiers by David Finkel and The Cruelest Journey: 600 Miles to Timbuktu a travel narrative by Kira Salak. All these texts have characters or real people in the case of The Good Soldiers and The Cruelest Journey:

The best example of this is in the Odyssey when Odysseus boasts on his victory over Polyphemus the Cyclops ,but the Cyclops prays to his father Poseidon to make Odysseus’ journey cruel and life threatening. “O hear me, lord, blue girdler of the islands, if I am thine indeed, and thou art father: grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, never see his home: Laertes’ son, I mean,who kept his hall on Ithaca. Should destiny intend that he shall see his roof again among his family in his fatherland , far be that day, and dark the years between. Let him lose all his companions, and return under strange sail to bitter days at home”(Cyclops 443-452). Odysseus boasts to the Cyclops and instead of an easy ride home, he faces perils and life threatening situations in his pursuit to return home. After this journey, however Odysseus becomes humble, strategic and is less negligent than before. This is shown in lines through in the episode The Lotus Eaters when Odysseus could eat the lotus and forget all about his troubles, however he never gives up and keeps going and pushing to get home, “but those who ate this honeyed plant, the Lotus, never cared to report, nor to return: they longed to stay forever, browsing on that native bloom, forgetful of their homeland. I drove them, all three wailing, to the ships, tied them down under their rowing benches, and called the rest:’All hands aboard; come, clear the bench and no one taste the Lotus, or you lose your hope of home”(Lotus 44-52). In this excerpt, we see Odysseus figure out the secret of the lotus and instead of him letting himself forget about his journey and worries he drives his men who are crying out for him to stop and screaming he ties them to their rowing stations and orders them to row and subsequently allows them to return