Essay on The Odyssey

Submitted By kaylaalana
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Pages: 4
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The Odyssey, a book depicting the hero Odysseus’ return to his home, also tells the story of his son’s maturing. Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, begins in the story a fearful child who holds anger in his heart from never having the privilege of knowing his father. As the story progresses, we see Telemachus gains confidence in himself and begins to take charge. His development is seen through him confronting the suitors, taking charge and leading an expedition to find information on his father, and making plans to rescue his father after hearing of his imprisonment. Telemachus starts out as a boy timid and unsure of himself, but with the help from the goddess Athena, he is filled with aplomb in himself and acts as a true man would by supporting and defending his father. While Odysseus is away, his wife Penelope is bombarded by arrogant and self-righteous suitors who consume all of his animals and reside in his home. Telemachus is offended and enraged by this, especially because the father he never had isn’t here to defend his own home. More than anything, Telemachus is angry with his position in life. He wonders why the gods would curse him by allowing him to grow up without a father figure and watch as his mother is harassed by unworthy suitors. He acts sorry for himself and childish. "They have chosen to send trouble upon us. That man they have picked out of all the men in the world, and they have made him vanish out of our sight. If he were dead it would not hurt me so much ( Rouse, 9). He is so blinded by his self-pity he doesn’t realize he has the ability to banish the suitors from the house Athena, still fond of Odysseus, disguises herself as Odysseus’ old friend Mentes and talks to Telemachus about confronting the suitors and traveling to Pylos and Sparta to try and discover what happened to his father. Telemachus suspects that his visitor was actually a god in disguise so it gives him a notch in his confidence and he tells the suitors there will be a meeting about their banishment from his father’s home. The suitors doubt the boy and ask who sent him such information, and instead of revealing the goddess he tells them it was a friend of his father’s. At the assembly, Aegyptius praises the young boy for filling in his father’s shoes when he could not be there to do so himself. At this point in the story, Telemachus has made his first major step to becoming the man that he has the potential to be. He has defended his father’s home and taken care of his mother. "Gentlemen, you pretend to marry my mother, but you are behaving in a most outrageous fashion..to-morrow let us hold session in the market-place, for I wish to tell you in plain words that you must go from my house ( Rouse, 16). Still hurt over his father’s absence, Athena disguises herself as Mentor, another friend of Odysseus’, and predicts to Telemachus that if he pursues the journey to find his
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