The Struggles of Odysseus

Odysseus’s Struggles Odysseus faces many conflicts in The Odyssey. He faces both internal and external conflicts. He has many different decisions to make, such as to face Scylla or Charybdis with is crew. In my opinion, the three most important conflicts are when Odysseus’s men refuse to listen when he tells them not to eat the cattle, the fact that he was pulled away from his wife, Penelope, and their newborn son, and when Odysseus faces the Cyclopes. One thing that I learned while reading this story as that Odysseus’s men are stubborn. They refuse to listen to him. They ate Helios’s (the sun god) cattle. This had some negative reactions from the rest of the gods. The main part of the aftermath was when Zeus destroyed Odysseus’s ship, and killed his men. Afterwards, Odysseus struggled to get back home to Ithaca, into the loving arms of his wife and (now older) son. Another main conflict was when Odysseus was longing the comfort of his wife’s arms and wanting to actually spend time with his son. Odysseus loved his wife. He had two instances where goddesses wanted to keep him to their selves, but he still desired his dear Penelope. Penelope gave birth to Odysseus’s son the day Odysseus had to leave to fight in the Trojan War. Odysseus was gone for about 10 years, and he had only seen his son when he was first born. He would have liked to see how his son had grown up, but he hadn’t been able to, until he finally returned home, after 10 years. Odysseus was bold in trying to search the Cyclopes’ cave. He wanted to wait for the Cyclops to return to see what the Cyclops would offer him. When the Cyclops returned, however, it trapped Odysseus and his men in the cave, and snacked on a few. Odysseus believed that guests should be treated with the utmost respect, but the Cyclopes didn’t feel that way toward guests. The Cyclopes didn’t believe in any customs, or laws for that matter. I feel that Odysseus has had many struggles in his adventures, and that he deserved to finally find his way back to his family. Odysseus has had many conflicts in The Odyssey, but just a few of them were more important, to me, than the others. The three most important ones are when Odysseus’s men didn’t listen and decided to eat the sun god’s cattle, his great longing for his wife and son, and his encounter with the Cyclops. I believe that Odysseus learned a valuable lesson in this story, and that is, not to take anything for granted.