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Hero's Journey

All future posts are for Hero's Journey.

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How does Odysseus feel about his men? Bonus: a lot of questions about class

We’ve discussed a lot to what extent we think Odysseus is a reliable narrator. The main piece of evidence for his reliability is that he includes details about the way he treated his crew that reflect badly on him. Today in class I suggested that he could include these details to make lies seem more realistic and someone suggested that Odysseus probably just truly feels bad about his men’s deaths. But that started me thinking about the weird dynamic of Odysseus’s relationship with his crew so I looked back in the book to see how he talks about his men and their deaths. I presented on book eleven, so I immediately thought of Elpenor. Elpenor certainly seems important to Odysseus since Odysseus mentions him three times: when he first died, when he’s in the underworld, and when he’s actually buried. Odysseus’s attention to Elpenor both in burying him with all the proper rituals and in describing his death in detail in his story shows that Odysseus has some level of affection for him...
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Flowers in Mrs. Dalloway

Flowers abound in Mrs. Dalloway . Parts of the plot are flower centric. The book begins with Clarissa going to buy flowers. Later on she reflects on the unique way Sally arranges flowers and how Sally kissed her after picking a flower. Richard brings Clarissa flowers when he comes home. Flowers are also just briefly mentioned throughout the book. When Peter follows a woman to her house his thoughts about Clarissa are interrupted by “The house was one of those flat red houses with hanging flowers of vague impropriety. (…) Well, I’ve had my fun; I’ve had it, he thought, looking up at the swinging basket of pale geraniums.” (53). It’s odd that Peter focuses on the flowers at all, given that his thoughts are mostly consumed by Clarissa and the other woman but it’s also interesting that Peter notes the specific type of flower. Later Peter thinks about Sally and flowers: “Who was it who had done that? (…) Somebody who had written him a long, gushing letter quite lately about...
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Addie

Addie has all the characteristics of an excessively terrible person. She likes beating children: “I would look forward to the times when they faulted, so I could whip them” (170).   She cheated on her husband. She even hates spring (every sane person’s favorite season and you can fight me on that); she goes down to a stream after school “especially in the early spring, for it was the worst then” (169). And yet I found her one of the most sympathetic characters in the book? So how could such a terrible person be sympathetic? Well for one thing, a lot of the terrible things she does have some sort of justification. Addie hates her job and the children she has to work with but as a single woman without any family to support her, she has to work and she wouldn’t really have any options besides teaching. There’s no excuse for beating kids but at least it doesn’t just bring her joy because she’s a sadist, it brings her joy because she is able to hurt the peop...
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