THESIS STATEMENT
Throughout the epic the Odyssey the theme like father like son is demonstrated through Telemachus following in his father’s (Odysseus) footsteps.
PURPOSE STATEMENT
It is evident that through extensive research on the Odyssey, Telemachus evolves into a character similar to his father Odysseus in this epic.
INTRODUCTION
Imagine ten grueling years of constant bloodbath at war. After all that horror facing journeying on vicious waters: battling a sea monster, traveling to the underworld, and angry gods attempting to wreak havoc everywhere you go. This is all on a quest to reunite with your loved ones. A brave Greek warrior–Odysseus–encounters all these circumstances. His son yearns for him to return home. This son of his is in a nervous state. He has no father figure in his life and is unable to protect his mother in their precarious situation.
The Odyssey tells the thrilling tale of the clever Greek hero Odysseus. He has many terrifying adventures on his long awaited return to his kingdom, Ithaca. In this epic Odysseus’ son Telemachus becomes the man his father is and demonstrates personality traits Odysseus possesses. Telemachus must overcome his fear to undertake journeys in order to reunite his family. Odysseus and Telemachus together share a love and appreciation for Penelope. They both began as impulsive men and must learn patience in panicky situations later on. “He is like his father Odysseus, in that he is loyal and disgusted by evil. He also, like his father, is willing to go fight for his freedom.” (Pope 45)
Telemachus is being described in comparison to Odysseus – they are equally dedicated in life to Penelope and have a great will to conquer obstacles in their life to reunite with each other.
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...e was unsure about taking his father’s place.
Odysseus learns to act wisely and not impulsively through his adventures. “All his past training in patience, wariness and self-control is needed now to help him play his part…” (Walker 76). From past obstacles Odysseus was required to overcome on his trip home to Ithaca he was grown from acting out impulsively to thinking out strategies before had for attacks and battles.
CONCLUSION
In Homer’s the Odyssey the theme like father like son is demonstrated. Telemachus becomes the man his father (Odysseus) is through acquiring personality traits that he has and evolving in a brave and courageous character, such as his father was. Odysseus and Telemachus both go on journeys to reunite their families; they both have a great love and appreciation for Penelope and transition from being impatient and impulsive to patience.
In the epic poem The Odyssey, Homer portrays Telémakhos, the son of Odysseus, as a young man trying to find his place in the world. The opening part of the book, the Telemakhiad (the first four books in the poem) is perhaps meant to be a bildungsroman, which studies the maturation of a young character by focusing on this maturation with respect to his or her traits and environment by, in turn, making him or her face a series of social encounters. Starting out little more than a boy, Telémakhos matures over the course of the Telemakhiad and finds himself close to achieving his implied dream of being a manor rather of becoming one like his hero of a father. Indeed, the Telemakhiad, the story of Telémakhos' short yet crucial adventure to find his father, fits the description of a bildungsroman; Telémakhos, being taught and initiated in the ways of the world by the actions of Athena, matures a great deal in the open of the book alone.
In Odyssey, Homer creates a parallel between Odysseus and Telemachos, father and son. The two are compared in the poem from every aspect. One parallel was the quest of Telemachos, in correlation with the journey of his father. In this, Odysseus is developed from a childish, passive, and untested boy, to a young man preparing to stand by his father's side. This is directly connected to the voyage of Odysseus, in that they both lead to the same finale, and are both stepping-stones towards wisdom, manhood, and scholarship.
Throughout the last books of The Odyssey Homer tells us how Odysseus restores his relationships with his friends and relatives at Ithaca. Perhaps one of the most revealing of these restoration episodes is Odysseus' re-encounter with his son, Telemachus. This re-encounter serves three main purposes. First, it serves to portray Telemachus' likeness to his father in the virtues of prudence, humility, patience, and planning. Secondly, it is Odysseus' chance to teach his son to be as great a ruler as Odysseus himself is. Lastly, Homer uses this re-encounter to emphasize the importance of a family structure to a society. To be able to understand the impact that this meeting had on Odysseus it is necessary to see that Telemachus has grown since his first appearances in the poem and obviously since his last contact with his father; Odysseus left Telemachus as an infant now their relationship is a man to man relationship rather than a man to child relationship.
Throughout The Odyssey Telemachus grows in character from an unprepared teen to a young man who could one day rule Ithaca. He has many experiences traveling to learn more about his father and many that occur on Ithaca once Odysseus returns. All of these events help to shape him into the assertive young man he becomes.
The relationship of father and son between Odysseus and Telemachus allows their progress in maturity to be linked. It creates an intangible journey that, although separated by distance, could be shared. Therefore, when the journey they share becomes tangible, “a boy daydreaming,” (5), can become the “true son of King Odysseus (301).
Although he has come into his adolescence at the beginning of the book, however, growing up without a father still makes him somewhat pathetic without initiative. As the suitors show uncertainty about Odysseus’ return home, he presents no incentive and resolves to expel the suitors since he has long lost the faith that his father is still alive and will return home someday. As he said to Athena in book one:”Mother has always told me I’m his son, it’s true, but I am not so certain. Who, on his own, has ever really known who gave him life” and ” But now, no use, he’s died a wretched death. No comfort’s left for us…not even if someone, somewhere, says he’s coming home. The day of his return will never dawn.”(Homer 1.194 & 1.249) He does nothing but weep over his misfortune instead of standing out against them as a master in the house and protect his own estate while they are reveling in the palace by wasting his property. Not like his father, as one of the leaders in the Trojan war, who is not only adept in making decisions and giving orders to soldiers but als...
A father and son rejoice together in a tearful moment after many long years. Because Odysseus has not returned home for twenty years since the Trojan War, Telemakhos, son of Odysseus, did not grow up with any fatherly influence. After their joyful reunion, it is made clear of how both of them are very much alike. Even though Telemakhos and Odysseus were separated, Telemakhos showed that he is worthy of being Odysseus’s son. He has the qualities of a great ruler: courage, hospitality, leadership; he looks up to Odysseus as his role model by creating a trustworthy relationship; he is also growing into manhood by asserting his authority. They also have a father and son bonding time which shows that they both act their own father and son roles.
Telemachus family’s honor is in jeopardy since his father Odysseys roaming soul lost somewhere, God knows where in this world and his possible death is unrecognized and undervalued. Because, the uncertainty of tomorrow is not promised, Telemachus fears the worst, that his legendary father’s traces are vanished from the face of earth, leaving poor Telemachus unprotected and with a confusion of his own identity. Telemachus now faces the challenge to own up to his father’s masculinity and fill his void, in order to regain the lost reputation of his father Odysseus. Telemachus only wish, his father death, his people of Achaea, “would have raised his tomb and he’d have won his son great fame for years to come.”
Over their travels in the epic The Odyssey, both Odysseus’ and his son Telemachus’ adventures were parallel but at the same time different. These travels led them both to grow and change drastically, and both learned some very important life lessons over the course of this epic.
The Hero’s Journey is never an easy one. This particular journey, as detailed in Homer’s The Odyssey, is one of struggle, loss, heartache, pain, growth and triumph. It is comprised of many steps that Odysseus has to overcome and battle through in order to achieve his final goal of reaching his home and his loved ones. From the Call to Adventure to the Freedom or Gift of living, Odysseus conquered them all. The story begins in the middle of the story, as many of the oral Greek traditions did, with the Journey of Telemachus to find his father. Although Telemachus has not yet met his father, it is almost as if they are journeying together, where the end of both of their journeys results in being reunited. Telemachus journeys from being a boy to becoming a man, while out in the sea Odysseus is battling Poseidon to return to the home that wife that he loves and the home he has left behind.
In Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, the main theme is the reunification of the family, as Odysseus struggles to return home and rejoin his wife and son. Throughout the Odyssey, we are shown examples of families: good ones that prosper and bad ones that do not. As Telemakhos struggles to become a man and Odysseus struggles homeward, the concept of healthy family life is stressed. At the end, when all conflicts are resolved and Odysseus is reunited with wife and son, the lesson that a united family can overcome any obstacles is shown and is one that today's families should heed.
In the first four books of Homer’s The Odyssey, the character of Telemachus undergoes a dramatic evolution. When Homer first introduces him, he appears to be an unsophisticated youth, wallowing in self-pity. After the goddess Athena intervenes, he becomes, seemingly, a man of courage, strength, and resolve. On closer analysis, however, one remains to wonder if this transformation is genuine. The rapidity of his change in personality and the assistance he requires from the goddess at every stage in his journey suggests that he is not yet a hero in the mold of his father, the great Odysseus.
...journey is less cyclical than Achilles' but similarly ends with his regret for the ravages of war. Odysseus is a flawed character, much like man himself, and his actions can only be fully accounted for by attributing them to the gradual progression of his soul. He is gifted, yet possesses shortcomings; insightful, yet blind; driven, yet lost. Achilles is divine, yet mortal; rational, yet contradictory; kind, yet vicious. Still, together they represent the ideals of Greek mythology and the weaknesses of mankind. They are in control of their own actions, but subject to fate. Through both heroes, Homer manages to convey some of the most fundamental features of human existence.
...a, escaping Calypso and the island of Ogygia, and Telemachus from Ithaca to Pylos and Sparta in search of his lost father. While The Odyssey tells of the courage both men demonstrate during their respective travels, their quests are the results of the intentions and desires of gods. Odysseus is trapped in exile on Ogygia by the will of Poseidon, whose anger Odysseus attracts when he blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, and by the love of Calypso, who wishes to make Odysseus her husband. He is released from Ogygia and permitted to return to Ithaca only by the command of Zeus, as delivered by Hermes. Telemachus, rather than being trapped physically, was detained emotionally, feeling helpless to repel the suitors wooing Penelope. Only through the motivation of the goddess Athena did Telemachus find the will and courage to embark in search of Odysseus.
Homer's Odyssey depicts the life of a middle-aged, while Tennyson's "Ulysses" describes Ulysses as an old man. The character's role in his son's life shifts. With maturity, Telemachus does not require as much guidance from his father. However, time does not alter the caring fellowship the man has with his crew, nor the willpower that he possesses in achieving his goals.