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Essay On The Hero's Journey In The Odyssey

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In The Odyssey by Homer, the development of Odysseus’s characterization through the course of the epic portrays the hero’s journey structure. The hero’s journey chiefly consists of the departure, trials, and the homecoming; the hero matures with the successful completion of each stage. Therefore, Odysseus’s character transformation as a hero metaphorically conveys his progress in the hero’s journey. In the beginning of the epic, Odysseus is like any other young, inexperienced hero with excessive pride in his raw strength. As he truly begins his journey into the unknown (departure), he learns that his character flaws threaten his objective. Up until his encounter with the Cyclops, Odysseus was accustomed to winning with his physical might (Trojan War). However, when his strength could do him no good while trapped in a cave with a beast, he was forced to think beyond killing and combat; ultimately he met success by using his mind, something he had never done before. Yet, still an immature hero, Odysseus brooded over his success and taunted the beast as he left the island. In response, the “blind thing …show more content…

This major transition in characterization emerged as he learned to give up his flaws little by little. In his encounter with the Sirens, he acted like a completely different person when he requested his “dear friends” (689) to “tie [him] up, tight as a splint” (695). Earlier in his journey, he had used a belittling tone to describe his men during the Cicones incident (“my men stood up and made a fight of it” (57)). By the time of the Sirens trial, Odysseus had really matured to appreciate his company’s presence and understand the importance of taking help from others. This development in maturity symbolizes his progress in the hero’s journey: he crossed the threshold as an amateur hero and returned to Ithaca as a newly transformed

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