The Journey In Homer's The Odyssey

“All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.” (Brainy Quotes) The Odyssey by Homer is an epic poem where Odysseus faces many challenges and learns to push past them to his destination throughout the story. The Journey by Mary Oliver, is a poem about a girl listening to everyone else's opinions but her own, she learns she needs to be true to herself and stop being a follower and find her destination to discovering herself. Odysseus is challenged by an evil monster named the Cyclop. The speaker in the Journey is defying the voices in her head and, is crying for help. In the poems The Odyssey and The Journey the authors use details to convey that people embark up on quests to satisfy their curiosity

Odysseus, the main character in Homer’s The Odyssey was so fascinated with all the interesting things he was hearing about this humongous monster. This monster was named the Cyclops, everyone was talking about how big and scary it was. Odysseus was determined to put his own eyes on this massive creature, so he could have his own opinion of this scary animal. This creature Odysseus thought was fascinating ended up turning into an evil monster, and went against Odysseus and his men. The cyclops had trapped him and his men into a dark cave. They all became furious with this beast, and disappointed with themselves. Odysseus with all his anger had stabbed the cyclops and killed him. They were all in danger because of their mistake. Odysseus was protecting this men and cheering them up that they were now free. “Dear friends, surely we are not unlearned in evils. This is no greater evil now than it was when the Cyclops had us

This is similar to how Odysseus is kept from his happiness. The speaker of the poem begins by describing something that she has to do, but how others keep her from doing this. “One day you finally knew, what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice” (Oliver 1-5). These voices that she talks about are the people trying to keep her away from her goal and she chooses to look past these and accept her own opinions. On her journey she has to learn to ignore all the negativity. These people who try to get in her way are holding her back of her finding her happiness and herself. “You felt the old tug at your ankles. ‘Mend my life!’ each voice cried” (Oliver 9-11). These people in the speaker’s way are not just literally tugging at her ankles, but it is a way for the author to show how they are holding her back. They want her to fix them, or mend their lives, and she realizes that she has to keep going on. She has the desire to discover herself by persevering. She knows she has to overcome this obstacle to discover