Regret. Guilt. Anger. Shame. Remorse. These are all emotions people have to live with every day. For example, in the books Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer, the heroes of the story do things that are not noble or heroic. Despite these actions, readers accept characters as heroes. However, all of these characters have done things they regret. In contrast to these beliefs and acceptances, people would not accept these characters as such an archetype had the reader seen them from a different perspective. Whether or not a person considers a character heroic lies solely upon the opinions of the reader. For instance, in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, readers hail the protagonist, Liesel Meminger, as a hero despite her many unlawful acts. For example, Liesel becomes involved it's a group of very problematic young …show more content…
“‘... he’s here from roving the ocean, driven far off course— he looks like a deathless god!’” (Homer 8.15). To explain further, Homer includes the positive opinions of strangers while telling Odysseus’ story. Moreover, this shows the many positive traits that are very prominent in Odysseus. In contrast, there are many negative qualities of Odysseus that Homer highlights as well. “With that he trained a stabbing arrow on Antinous … just lifting a gorgeous golden loving-cup in his hands, just tilting the two-handled goblet back to his lips, about to drain the wine—and slaughter the last thing on the suitor’s mind” (Homer 22.8). Not to mention the fact that murder is a terrible thing for any character to do, but Homer exaggerates the brutality of the murder. In doing so, Homer opens the reader’s eyes to a whole new perspective of Odysseus and his character. In summary, Homer greatly focuses on the many qualities of Odysseus, allowing the reader to form an honest