Reflecting on the Odyssey
For the second half of the 3rd Quarter, we read Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey.
Homer’s literary devices
In Homer’s The Odyssey, he uses a lot of literary devices throughout his work such as epithets, epic similes, and allusions. Homer’s, The Odyssey uses literary devices that charm the plots and sometimes make me confused. I liked epithets the most because Odysseus and others character use this device and it helps to understand because it shows the type of the character that is he or she is. For example, Odysseus is “mistreat the beggar” (book 19) and Teiresias is “the prince of Thebes” underworld, which I think it is very helpful for readers who struggles on other devices that Homer uses and all of devices do really enchant Homer’s writing. However, I have found that epic similes are way more complicated than epithets because sometimes I don’t get the deeper meaning behind the similes and it can often be really hard to understand which make me confused and not get anything.
II. The Hero
My concept of a hero is Deadpool; Odysseus is different because deadpool is very straightforward, heartwarming, playful but Odysseus is an intelligent, great trickster and cunning man. Odysseus differs from my concept of a hero because he is sometimes cunning and aving too much pride in hiself, pushing himself right into trouble. Odysseus is shown to be haughty because of how he couldn’t stand having “Nohbody” taking credit and not get victory for his actions instead of him being smart in the chapter, “The Cyclops”, he was foolish because he told his real name to Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, that causing his crew to be in trouble along with him which is coursed by Poseidon. Moreover, Odysseus is also cunning, which is a trait that most of heroes don’t have. Cunningness can be useful sometimes but I think it’s not good to use all the time. Even though Odysseus has some of the traits that could fit in my concept of a hero, I wouldn’t say that he is the one who I would like to look up to as a great hero.
III. The Journey
Homer’s views of life’s journey differs from other poets we studied this quarter because Homer views a hero’s journey as one long time that passes through several adventures and obstacles along the way before finally reaching the end(Ithica)— trying to get back home to his normal life for 20 years. Most poetries refer to a hero’s journey as a cycle in one storyline, unlike The Odyssey. A poem such as Shakespeare’s poem, “Seven Ages of Man,” talks about many states of human and and living is no meaning. The Odyssey, however, talks about many different journeys in one poem. Homer retells that Odysseus not giving up from one place to another which can all be the climax of the pome instead of having one big climax like most other writers do.
IV. Strengths and Weaknesses
Writing: My middle of the year writing assessments identified my strengths and weaknesses in my writing. I have good organization, content and improved with style/fluency. I crafted the introductions, conclusion in order and transitions that link my ideas and my tone of writing that supports meaning. I use supporting details and examples which make things more easy to understand. Overall, my weaknesses are mainly in my language usage. I have trouble using nouns and verbs in the correct way and sometimes, I forget to put punctuations which make run-on sentences. I think overall I did well, despite some mistakes.
Reading: I tend to do a good job on my reading test and did very well most recent tests I have taken. I struggle on my identification questions where I have to identify quotes from texts such as who is talking to who and explaining what had happen as well. I find this hard because one quote, can be from wherever in the story, either from beginning, middle or the end. I have to read and remember details from all chapters and every sections of the texts. To improve on my identification tests, I will make sure that I list enough important quotes and events, which I think will appear on the test.
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