Theme Of Persistence In The Odyssey

Odysseus was a brave and wise warrior who fought proudly at the battle of Troy. Following his ten years of battle he spent another ten years just trying to reach home again. He was faced with many drawbacks and hardships on his way back to his home of Ithaca where he hoped to be reunited with his wife and son. These delays, however, never got the better of the epic hero, this is because of Odysseus’s persistence. This good heroic quality of his is the reason that he was eventually able to return home to his family. Odysseus has many good qualities such as his bravery, cunning and wisdom but it was his persistence that was the driving force on his journey home. Persistence is defined as being a firm or obstinate continuance in a course of

It was his persistence that helped him stay calm after Poseidon drove his ship off course after he had blinded his cyclopes son Polyphemus. Although it took the help of a friend to remind Odysseus of home, it was his persistence that made him strive to get back after realizing he had spent a whole year there on Circes island. And lastly after spending seven years on Calypsos island it was his persistence that gave him the hope and the passion to try again after being set free because of the dues ex machina from Zeus and Hermes. Even after this event, there were still many more setbacks and obstacles to overcome but he was able to hurdle over them and keep his goal in

Perseverance was important during the time that the Odyssey was written, the reason for this is because much like our current culture things are not handed out, you have to be determined and work for what you want. If you don’t have persistence you give up and when you give up you miss out on opportunities that could benefit you. In some instances, our culture is lacking persistence, many people would rather take the easy way out instead of putting in the effort and making the accomplishment themselves. One example of a way in our culture that people take the easy way out is when people ask for money instead of making the effort to get it for themselves. There is a website called GoFundMe where people can ask for money for certain projects, this website is meant to be used for business or charity purposes. Unfortunately, like many things, people will take advantage. I’ve seen and heard of many time were people go on this website or other similar ones for simple things like groceries or a manicure. This however doesn’t compare to another way our culture can use persistence and it is quite possibly the most important. This day in age, people are commonly acting out the most serious and grim way of taking the easy way out and that happens to be suicide. When people suffer and deal with drawbacks and hardships they feel low and hopeless, this is when persistence is most important.