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Odysseus Character Analysis

Decent Essays

Zig Ziglar once said, “Try to look at your weakness and convert it into your strength. That’s success.” This means that even though there may be traits about yourself that are slowing you down, everything depends on the way you handle them. Although most heroes seem superhuman, they often have human-like weaknesses. Their faults can get them into trouble if they aren’t careful. In the book The Odyssey by Homer, the hero Odysseus has many humanlike flaws like excessive pride, selfishness, and lack of leadership that gets him and his crew into tough situations.
Odysseus’ exaggerated pride takes over him at times and causes him to make foolish decisions. For example, when Odysseus and his crew escape the cyclops, his ego took over and he …show more content…

This shows that Odysseus does not take into consideration other people and the risks that he is putting them in. This information shows that Odysseus is a self-centered person.
Odysseus shows terrible leadership skills through his words and actions. One way Odysseus lacks leadership is when he did not tell his crew what was in the sack, so they took matters into their own hands and “loosed the sack and all the winds burst out and a sudden squall struck and swept [them] back to sea” (Book X, 53-54). This means that since Odysseus was keeping secrets from his crew, they felt the need to open the sack and see what was really inside of it. This could have all been avoided if he told them the truth to begin with and earn a role as a trustworthy leader. Another way he lacks leadership is when they were on the island waiting for the giant and one of his shipmates said “‘Let’s make away with the cheeses, then come back— hurry, drive the lambs and kids from the pens to our swift ship, put out to sea at once!’ But [Odysseus] would not give way—” (Book IX, 255-258). This shows that the crew doesn’t want to confront the giant because of the risks involved, but Odysseus is not concerned about the risks and does what he pleases. A good leader would let other people share their opinions, take the risks into consideration, and then decide what to do, and he did not do

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