Homer’s The Odyssey, Linda Crew’s Children of the River, and Scott O’Dell’s Sing Down the Moon share a common implied theme, which focuses on the importance of family and home. In The Odyssey, Odysseus best demonstrates the importance of family and home. After being absent from his home and family in Ithaca for almost 20 years, he sits daily on the shores of Calypso’s island, Ogygia, “wearing out his soul with lamentation and tears” (63) because he longs to return to his home. Athena, who argues with Zeus to allow Odysseus to go home against the wishes of Poseidon tells her father Odysseus “would be happy to see as much as the smoke leaping up from his native land, and then to die” (12) knows how much he wants to be with his family again.
Odysseus further conveys the significance of his family relationships by refusing the appealing bargain of “Calypso, a radiant creature” (11), which would give him immortality under the stipulation that he must forget his family in Ithaca and stay with her for eternity. When Odysseus is set free from Calypso’s clutches by Hermes and informed that his journey to Ithaca would be a challenging one, he still chooses to depart so that he can be with his family once again. Odysseus’s homeward bound takes ten years and involves several tumultuous experiences with mortals, gods, and monsters. Odysseus saves his men from the blissful drugs of the Lotus-Eaters and the wicked enchantments of Circe. Also, he rescues them from the Laestrygonians, who were a cannibal race of giants. Odysseus led his men pass the enticing Sirens and in addition, he surpasses the six-headed monster Charybdis. He even lands on the treacherous island of Ogygia again after his ship gets wrecked all before stepping foot in Ithaca.
The Essay on Athena Odysseus Telemachus Home
... encourage Telemachus and her visions to calm Penelope. Once Odysseus arrives home to Ithaca she provides a mist to cover the land so ... uses disguises to manipulate the situations in favor of the family of Odysseus. She changes Odysseus's appearance so that he can quietly ... desecrated by the Greeks. Now Odysseus has been imprisoned on Ogy gia by Calypso and away from home for the last ten years. ...
Not only does Odysseus battle his way through hordes of dangerous instances to reach home, he also brawls with the suitors in Ithaca to reclaim his abode. Odysseus valiantly slaughters the sinister suitors who laid siege to his house with help from his son and Athena. This was the greatest obstacle that Odysseus triumphed over so that he could be with his family once more.
Penelope repeatedly illustrates the magnitude of family like her husband Odysseus. She continues to stay faithful even during Odysseus absence because she herself knows that he is an enormous part of their family. Penelope exhibits her fidelity by promising the suitors that beset her that she will only marry when she completes a shroud for Odysseus’s father Laertes. Penelope worked diligently at the loom each day and unraveled the cloth each night to delay the suitors and await Odysseus’s return. Her emotions also show how much she cares for Odysseus because she weeps for him in several different occasions during the story.
Sundara, the protagonist in the children of the river, after a long sea voyage, finds herself in a situation similar to that of Odysseus, she misses her family and home. Sundara’s strong feelings regarding the importance of home and family can frequently be seen in several different occasions in the story. Sundara emphatically expresses her true feelings on this subject in a poem that she reads in class. She depicts the horrid things that are occurring in her homeland and also writes that she will never forget the suffering people. Through out the novel, Sundara is troubled with the thought that maybe she didn’t do the right thing in coming to America. It is also evident that Sundara is upset because her lover Chamroeun and family are not with her.
Bright Morning, the main character in Sing Down the Moon, replicates the same characteristic as Sundara. After being stolen from her tribe, by Spanish slavers, and taken to an English town she then realizes what her family and home actually mean to her. However, Bright Morning narrowly escapes from her captors because of her deep desire to reach home and be with her family. In another sequence, Bright Morning flees the Indian camp that she is confined to with her husband, Tall Boy, so that she can keep the family united. By doing this, she and her husband had to travel rugged terrain so that they could raise their child decently.
The Essay on Odysseus Home Suitors One
Douglas Steward is a very highly regarded writer. In his works that focused on, 'The Disguised Guest,' he explains his views of Odysseus's elf struggles that appear when he arrives back home. His point of views toward the mental and physical struggles that Odysseus goes through are hard to disagree with. He puts a strong emphasis on the effect that others are going to have on him, when he reveals ...
