Theme Of Women In The Odyssey

During this year of ninth grade English, our class studied the theme of the role of women through the following texts: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, The Odyssey by Homer, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Romeo and Juliet is a play that focuses on the tragic love story between the children of warring houses. These children, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love at first sight and will do anything to stay together, leading to their deaths by the end. The Odyssey is an epic that tells the story of Odysseus, a warrior gone astray after the Trojan War, finding his way back to his family. The epic also centers around Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, who begins to come into his own on a journey to find his father. Eventually, the two find one

The girls’ father is serving in the army, so they are left with only their mother, a female role model for the children. Though we could see the theme of the role of women in all three pieces, one piece isn’t as focused on this as the others. The texts Romeo and Juliet and Little Women strongly demonstrate the theme of the role of women, meaning they should be included in next year's ninth-grade English curriculum, while the epic The Odyssey does not strongly depict this theme, meaning that it should be eliminated. Our final piece of literature read as a class during the ninth-grade year was Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, which should be kept in the curriculum because of how it portrays the theme of the role of women throughout the entire play. Although Romeo and Juliet is a play more widely known for the theme of forbidden love, the role of women is a prominent theme seen throughout the text. The play focuses on a young teenage girl, Juliet, who falls in love with the son of her father’s enemy, Romeo. However, it also focuses on the struggles of Juliet, including how she grows as a

This novel sets an example for young girls with character development among the March sisters, and shows the theme of the role of women throughout the book, therefore, it should be added to the night-grade curriculum. Little Women tells the story of a sisterhood between Jo, Meg, Beth, Amy, and their mother, who raised them to go against the stereotypes and to be who they want to be. The girls meet a young boy, Laurie, who changed their lives. Little Women focuses on the girls and their places as confident women in a world dominated by men. A major turning point in the novel is when Jo rejects Laurie’s proposal, not because anything is wrong with him, but simply because she doesn’t have to say yes. She tells him, “You know it’s impossible for people to make themselves love other people if they don’t” (Alcott 346). This shows that Jo is not willing to take part in a marriage that she doesn’t feel is right. It means that she will not force herself to love Laurie just to please him and be seen as the perfect woman. Though Jo does not want to be with Laurie, her younger sister Amy seems to have always liked him. Amy and Laurie find each other in Europe, after the failed proposal, and begin to learn more about each other. Amy tries to please him and clings to him, however, “Laurie made no effort of any kind, but just let himself drift along as comfortably as possible…feeling that all