The Oddessy 2 Essay, Research Paper
A person who remains anonymous once said, The best way out of a
Problem, is through it. Evidence of this statement is seen in several episodes of the epic poem, The Odyssey by, Homer. Odysseus is able to
face different problems, rather than avoiding them throughout his epic
adventure. Odysseus s ability to face difficult problems is best shown in
The Cyclopes, The Sirens, and Scylla and Charybdis.
In the episode, The Cyclopes illustrations of the statement, The
best way out of a problem, is through it are shown. For instance, Odysseus
could have killed the Cyclopes when he was standing in front of the door to
the cave but, he and his men never would have been able to get out of the
cave. Another example is, when Odysseus tells Polyphemus his name is
Noh-body, he is preparing for when he and his men put the stick through the
Cyclopes eye. So when the cyclopes runs to get help from the other
Cyclopes they will ask him what the man s name is, and he will say
Noh-bdy, which sounds like nobody, so they think there is nothing wrong
with him. During the episode of The Cyclopes , Odysseus did not try to
avoid the problem in order to solve it.
Throughout the episode of The Sirens instances are seen proving the
statement, The best way out of a problem, is through it . One
example of this, is when Odysseus has his men tie him to the mast of the
ship, so he can still hear the sirens, but not be able to go to them. A second
example of this statement, is when Odysseus puts Beeswax in his crew s
ears, so that they wont hear the sirens, but Odysseus will still be able to hear them sing their song. This adventure has shown many instances proving the
statement to be true.
In the adventure of Scylla and Charybdis proof of the statement,
The best way out of a problem, is through it is seen. Odysseus has his
crew steer the ship straight toward Scylla, he does this instead of heading
toward Charybdis, where he would loose all of his men instead of just some.
Another example is when, Odysseus keeps reassuring his men they will be
safe and that they have been in worse situations than this, and that they
should trust him. Instead of avoiding the problem completely, Odysseus
chooses the less severe of two possible solutions, Either way, he will loose
some men, it is whether he looses all of them along with his ship, or just 6
of his men.
The episodes of The Odyssey that have been mentioned, are just a few
of the several episodes that give truth to the statement, The best way out of
a problem, is through it . These episodes have shown many examples of the
statement. It seems to be obvious and logical why people believe the
statement to be true. The statement is a good guideline to use in
life as difficult problems or situations arise.