Odysseus Hero's Journey

In a hero’s quest a character has to be introduced to pain and suffering and leave a comforting environment in order to gain growth. In The Odyssey, the enticing poem written by the Ancient Greek Poet Homer, Odysseus must take a leap of faith to reach the land of Ithaca by stopping at various lands. Arthur Dent, the protagonist in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, has an identical experience. As Odysseus takes risks to reach his overall goal, Arthur must travel across the galaxy with his friend Ford perfect to find a new home. Being introduced to a uncanny world is a great example of what can happen when you get out of your comfort zone and what you can learn from new struggles. As odysseus has learned, These new struggles

Odysseus has proven himself in accomplishing this task through multiple encounters with different protagonists like poseidon and other mythical beasts. These encounters makes odysseus crave the Ingress of Ithaca and make him more bitter about being conscripted into the battle of troy. “But come, all of us here put heads together now, work out his journey home so Odysseus can return.” (). This quote is a good example from a third person source stating that odysseus is clearly in trouble and he needs all the help he can get to escape the situation. From Odysseus’ perspective, he is also having a very difficult time dealing with this situation. “Rag of man that I am, is this the end of me? I fear the goddess told it all too well, predicting great adversity at sea and far from home.” (Homer book 5. 309-312) This quote not only shows how confident Odysseus is about his travels but how vulnerable he is and how easily everything he’s been working toward could be disrupted on ended at any time. Odysseus is a very confident, strong, and clever person. In fact, Odysseus’ cleverness is a big part of why he was able to survive the hero’s journey. “My name is Nohbdy: mother father and friends, everyone calls me Nohbdy.” (Homer Book Nine. 394 – 399). This famous scene from the Odyssey is part of the pattern building on the level of brilliance

Everyday people have to deal with leaving their homestead. It is not uncommon for someone to be forced to leave his home country and have to find a new one. According to this source “In the last decade, an average of 700,000 people a year became naturalized citizens of the United States. That’s roughly one each year for every 500 U.S residents, or one every 79 seconds.” (John Cookson, CNN). That is a little under a million people who went on a journey to the United States in 10 years.

The characters stories from both books are great examples of the hero’s journey. Both the characters in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Odyssey were introduced to different challenges that started and ended in what they consider home. Both these stories represent lessons of bravery, perseverance, strength, and cleverness. All of these traits have been strongly influenced by these characters. To summarize my statement, both the protagonists are negatively affected by a challenge they were introduced to, and defeated what is considered the grand trial to emerge a better person because of