RaveRaze
Mana7
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Joined: 30 Jun 2008
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 Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:32 pm
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My teacher says its not up to college level (im in 9th grade), remove personal opinion, use better words, and cut the fat, Dont redo the essay just help me by pointing out my faults
| Quote: | The Odyssey
The Odyssey is an epic poem written by Homer more than 2000 years ago and is still widely read today. Odysseus is on a journey home from the Trojan War to his wife Penelope back in Ithaca. During the course of the story Homer switches the themes with out much flow, does not use symbolism in a way to convey the relationship between Odysseus and his wife Penelope, and he refuses to flesh out some of the main characters of his story. The combination of these three factors leads Odysseus’s tale to an unremarkable ending.
Near the end of the story the book takes a drastic turn from a story of adventure and action to a story of romance and longing. “Do not rage at me, Odysseus! No one ever matched your caution! Think what difficulty the gods gave: they denied us life together in our prime and flowering years, kept us from crossing into age together.” (964) Homer feels that the conflict in this story has evolved from Odysseus versus the world and the gods to Odysseus versus himself and his feelings. Homer switches from one theme to another so quickly that the transition feels forced and does not flow with the story. So this change in themes at the end does not leave for a satisfying ending but a more confusing and random ending.
Through of the Odysseus’s tale Homer fails to symbolize the current state of the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope. “To extend his hospitality, Aeolus gives Odysseus two parting gifts, a fair west wind blowing the ships toward Ithaca and a great bag holding all the unfavorable and stormy winds. Within sight of home and while Odysseus is sleeping, the men open the bag thinking it contains gold and silver. The bad winds escape and blow the ships back to Aeolus’s island.” (916) Homer shows very little imagery of the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope leaving Aeolus’s winds possibly the only symbol. Having no symbolism for their relationship Homer neglects his own end theme. With this meager amount symbols for the stories conclusion, it leaves the ending lacking impact and depth.
The Odyssey does a brilliant job on characterizing Odysseus and his family, but the other major characters like the gods and suitors aren’t given the same treatment. “Are you not coddled here enough, at table taking meat with gentlemen, your betters, denied nothing and listening to our talk” ( 950) Homer uses this quote from Antinous as the only form of characterization he gets, this being much more than the multiple other significant characters. Through these unformed characters, Homer constructs a lack of depth to his world which ends in a muddled story
In The Odyssey Homer leaves the story with an unsatisfactory ending by roughly transitioning his themes from a journey of adventure to a story of romance, lack of strong imagery for Odysseus’s relationship, and the lack of development for a few major characters. It may have been though that the story was never truly about Odysseus fights and perils and just about a story much someone will go through for someone they love, but that’s just another theory. The combination of those three factors is why the culmination of the story fails to deliver a remarkable ending.
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