Odyssey Paper
This is a 2-pages paper (excluding front and citation pages) about connecting the odyssey story to an event from the real world
more details in the file attached
Short Report on Homer’s Odyssey: Odyssey Echoes, Odyssey “Spins”
For this short report, I would like you to compose a short paper (aim for about two to three double-spaced pages, about 500 words), in which you connect or link the Odyssey to either (1) a current or recent event or social issue or (2) a work of art (story, novel, play, musical composition, painting, sculpture or film).
If you choose the first option, you could, as we discussed in class, discuss the Odyssey as the first probing treatment of a hero who is a returning war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Or, perhaps you could discuss the Odyssey as a story or stories of what happens when someone from one culture encounters cultures radically different from his or her own culture (see Odysseus’ numerous encounters on his travels), or as a story that really, deeply reflects on the value of hospitality. You might want to consider the story from Penelope’s point of view: what does she do, what happens to her, as she is compelled simply to wait until her husband returns, or doesn’t? In any way does what she experiences correspond to what women might experience today?
If you choose the second option, you could also explore links of the Odyssey to artworks as diverse as recent films (for example, O Brother, Where Art Thou? or Inception or American Sniper) or rap and blues music (are folksingers, blues singers or rappers, reincarnations of Homer?). Or, since the Odyssey can be read as a story about what storytelling is and can do, or how narratives shape our lives, maybe thinking about that will lead you to a possible connection with some form of storytelling today. Maybe having read and thought more about the Odyssey has made you see connections with other stories you know and with how stories are or could be told. Don’t forget that, from several significant perspectives, the story of the Odyssey is as much about Penelope and Telemachos as it is Odysseus: maybe the “spin” you find or imagine reflects more of what those characters endure and accomplish while they are waiting at home in Ithaca than it does about the hero’s adventures.
In short, you need to find something in our contemporary world that you think echoes the Odyssey, is based on some aspect of the Odyssey or illuminates the Odyssey in a new way. Stretch your thinking and your imagination! Remember all that the Odyssey is “about,” all that it involves. Try to come up with an interesting, viable and unexpected connection, as many who have read the poem have done. Look for connections with the Odyssey that go deeper. For example, a story about someone who experiences a long journey home might have only superficial connections to Homer, while another story that does not at first seem to resemble the Odyssey may well turn out to have deeper, thematic connections, evoking some of the important social, cultural and human issues that the Odyssey engages. In other words, look for connections that go beyond the obvious.
Your paper should be
typed, double-spaced, in MLA format
. That means using careful parenthetical references to any sources you consult and carefully listing those sources at the end of your paper. (Yes, the Odyssey itself counts as a source and you should list it!) Don’t waste time and space re-telling the story of the Odyssey: write for a reader, like me or your classmates, who already knows the story, the characters, the events and the issues but who doesn’t know what you want to say about them. Here’s how to list the Odyssey as a source in MLA format:
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume A. 3rd ed. Puchner, Martin, et al., eds. New York: Norton, 2012. 332-622.