In my opinion, he is like the character Odysseus from the Odyssey. In the film, Ulysses is confined in prison and in the Odyssey Odysseus is kept captive on Calypsos Island. Ulysses disguises himself to get his wife back, so she doesn’t get married to someone else and in the Odyssey Odysseus disguises himself so that he can safely get back home to his family. Ulysses and Odysseus both come across a prophecy. Both characters are wise and clever.
He has upset the gods, and is now on an island, sitting on a rock, far away from home. He has just come from the Trojan War. That was when he upset the gods. He is looking for a way home. He has a very long and dangerous journey ahead.
Calypso provided Ulysses a small vessel, which was more than what the gods had ordered. Ulysses sailed for seventeen days trying to find his way back home, until Poseidon noticed his vessel on his way back from Africa. Poseidon got angry at the fact that Ulysses was still alive so he had created a storm with waves that would destroy Ulysses ship and drown him. Ulysses struggled trying to keep himself alive until a nereid named Ino saw what was happening and came to Ulysses rescue for she dislike Poseidon. Ino gave Ulysses a veil and told him it would prevent him from drowning.
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.
When he arrives, after performing a sacrifice to attract the dead souls, Ulysses recognizes the soul of one of his own men who fell from the roof of Circe's cabin and requests that he be given a proper burial. Next, Ulysses hears the prophecy from Tiresias and the latter predicts that Ulysses will go home, reclaim his wife, and take a journey for Neptune who is angry with him and his men. For everything to go smoothly, however, Ulysses must not harm the goats on the island of the Sun, or else Ulysses' journey will be arduous and long. Whilst in the House of Hades, Ulysses meets the dead soul of his mother as well as his comrades that died during the Trojan War. Commentary-
Odysseus is talking to Athena when she tells him he has arrived at Ithaca. Odysseus is shell-shocked and come back saying, “But now I beg you by your almighty Father’s name…/for I can’t believe I’ve reached my sunny Ithaca,/ I must be roaming around one more exotic land–/ you’re mocking me, I know it, telling me tales/ to make me lose my way. Tell me the truth now, have I really reached that land I love?” (13. 367-373).
He states that he can't think of anything he would rather do than find the heron's nest and even declares “I would give ten dollars to anybody who could show it to me” (Jewett 437). Overall this whole conversation gives more information about the man's motives and Sylvia's knowledge. In this part of the story, each character's values start to show. The man was willing to do anything including bribing a nine-year-old girl to get his hands on the heron. Additionally, Sylvia was willing to take the bribe and help the man.
After Odysseus’ continued his journey from Aeaea, he arrived on the same island, once again. Circe is there to tell Odysseus about the rest of his journey home to Ithaca, and the challenges he must face. Circe explains how Odysseus has three routes that he can take to get home, option one is to go through the Rovers, option two is to pass by Skylla, and the last, Charybdis. Ultimately, Odysseus chooses the second option, to pass by Skylla, an evil, woman monster with multiple heads. Once Odysseus has had Circe explain the Rovers to him [Odysseus], she [Circe] begins to explain with immense detail the characteristics of Skylla.
He has been dropped off back on Ithaca by the Phaeacians. On his journey back to Ithaca Odysseus has changed greatly. As the prophecy has said he has returned home on a strangers ship, without his crew, and as a broken man. Odysseus has gone to his loyal swine herder, Eumaeus. This passage that is spoken by Eumaeus represents two themes.
Ulysses shows here that he can act on the spot. While Ulysses is extremely clever, he has also overcome multiple challenges that he was faced
What it means to be powerful is to be able to control people, or beat people with your physical and mental strength. In book 9 of the Odyssey, Odysseus slays a giant cyclops that is far bigger and stronger than him. Although the Cyclops is stronger than him, Odysseus can use his brain to defeat the Cyclops. Odysseus gets the Cyclops drunk and then attacks.
Odysseus was a man of great stature and strength; however, Odysseus was not only physically strong, but mentally strong as well (Olson). We can see Odysseus’ mental strength, or cunning, and bravery when he is in the den of Polyphemus and devises the plan to save him and his crew by calling himself nobody and stabbing out the cyclops’ eye. He also recognizes that he
I looked out the window, expecting to see the runaway crew member but instead I saw a different man who I immediately recognized as Odysseus. My spirits rose because I knew he was smarter than the others. Once again I lured him into my palace and offered him food and wine, which he refused. He only wanted to get his men returned to their original forms and to continue his journey to Ithaca with them by his side. When I finally convinced him to drink my wine, he was not affected by it.
Birds were always involved with any moment of significance, and they helped readers see what characters struggle with. The night of Edna’s awakening, an owl was depicted sitting in a tree. At a piano performance, where Edna awakens more, a parrot is mentioned in the text. All of these bird motifs pushed and stressed a specific theme. To distance oneself from expectation and societal norms one will sacrifice.
In the entire poem, it mentioned Ulysses longing to go away and adventure. His longing occurred because he was curious about the world and to satisfy that curiosity, he desired to travel to answer his questions. His curiosity about the things around him and the world allowed for him to adventure and his will to continue wondering. Differently, Odysseus’s curiosity sometimes caused trouble for him. Odysseus was curious about various things going on around him at his obstacles, which lead to trouble for him sometimes.
