Odysseus Journey In Homer's The Odyssey
Frederick Douglass once said “With out a Struggle their can be no Progress”. This quote perfectly explains the ups and downs of ones quest to return home. In the Odyssey, Homer uses Odysseus’s journey to show how one’s journey can affect them as a person. In the Odyssey, Homer gives Odysseus’s challenges that detours his journey home. These problems affect his desire to get back home and what he will do for his family. Odysseus states “ I drew on all my wits, and ran through the tactics, reasoning as a man will for dear life…”(Homer 1220). Odysseus was already wanting to get back to his family but the problems he came across made him want it that much more. Circe told Odysseus to plug his oarsmen's ears with bees wax and tie himself to
the mast. If Odysseus did not have the want to make it home he could have refused to listen to Circe and tried to fight the sirens. Another way Odysseus’s intelligence was expanded and affected throughout the story was by the many events he encountered along the way. Odysseus uses his intelligence in this quote “I took the wooliest ram, the choicest of the flock, and hung myself under his kinky belly…”(Homer 1220). If Odysseus would have tried to just run out without a plan he would have put his men in great danger. However Odysseus gained intelligence by coming up with a plan to use the rams to act as camouflage from the evil Cyclops. Thus Odysseus uses his wisdom to free his men and himself from Polyphemus and get back on their journey. The final way Odysseus’s character was affected through out the story was the importance of his wife to him. “Though he fought shy of her and her desire, he lay with her each night, for she compelled him.”(Homer 1208). Calypso urged Odysseus to love her but Odysseus refused, knowing that he had Penelope to return to. Odysseus had a choice to stay with Calypso or continue on his journey home. This Dilemma affected Odysseus’s personality as well buy giving him the drive to forget about Calypso and worry about his family. In the Odyssey, Homer uses problems,people, and thoughts to make Odysseus stumble on his Journey home. Odysseus uses his Intelligence and his need to get home to fight through the struggles and return home.
the mast. If Odysseus did not have the want to make it home he could have refused to listen to Circe and tried to fight the sirens. Another way Odysseus’s intelligence was expanded and affected throughout the story was by the many events he encountered along the way. Odysseus uses his intelligence in this quote “I took the wooliest ram, the choicest of the flock, and hung myself under his kinky belly…”(Homer 1220). If Odysseus would have tried to just run out without a plan he would have put his men in great danger. However Odysseus gained intelligence by coming up with a plan to use the rams to act as camouflage from the evil Cyclops. Thus Odysseus uses his wisdom to free his men and himself from Polyphemus and get back on their journey. The final way Odysseus’s character was affected through out the story was the importance of his wife to him. “Though he fought shy of her and her desire, he lay with her each night, for she compelled him.”(Homer 1208). Calypso urged Odysseus to love her but Odysseus refused, knowing that he had Penelope to return to. Odysseus had a choice to stay with Calypso or continue on his journey home. This Dilemma affected Odysseus’s personality as well buy giving him the drive to forget about Calypso and worry about his family. In the Odyssey, Homer uses problems,people, and thoughts to make Odysseus stumble on his Journey home. Odysseus uses his Intelligence and his need to get home to fight through the struggles and return home.