Patel 1 Pratik Patel 20063544 Mr.

Palmer World Literature & Writing 21 January 2011 The Choices of Odysseus Through out The Odyssey we see Odysseus make some excellent decisions and some not so great decisions. Odysseus and his men travel in the Mediterranean Sea to get back to their homeland of Ithica. Odysseus can be a very bright man, but he can make some dumb decisions. Honestly who doesnt, but it is true Odysseus is a man who can think on the spot and will do whatever he needs to do to save his men and himself. In this paper we will see the choices that Odysseus makes; such as ones with his crew and ones he had to do to save himself. In book nine Odysseus and his men come to the island of Thrinacia where the Cyclops named Polyphemus. When the boat stopped at the shore Polyphemus put them in his cave and put a gigantic boulder so no one gets in and no one gets out. Odysseus right then and there thought on his feet and came up with a plan. First: he told the Cyclops that his name was Nuh Budy, second: he got the Cyclops drunk and put him to sleep with music, third: Odysseus and his men make a large pointy stick to stab him in the eye so he wouldnt be able to see third, Odysseus tied his men and himself to the bottom of Polyphemus sheep and he let them out one by one. When Polyphemus let his sheep out he grabbed the one that Odysseus was tied to and starts to lecture Sweet cousin ram, why lag behind the rest in the night cave? Can you be grieving over your Masters eye? (Applebee pg. 497). Odysseus and his men run to his

Patel 2 boat and Odysseus starts bathing in his triumph that he had beat Polyphemus. You can see that he made a misguided decision by gloating because the Cyclops then got mad and through the top of the mountain and hit their ship, but thats not the only incoherent decision he made for example when he didnt tell his men about the bag of winds. When they were on their way home back to Ithica Odysseus fell asleep and his men found the bag of winds and thought it was a bag of gold that Odysseus was hiding. The men were very curious and wanted to open the bag. After sitting there pondering on the subject one of the men said Hurry, lets see what loot is in that sack, how much gold and silver (Fagles pg. 231-232). When they opened it the wind started to blow very strong winds and the boat ended going in the wrong direction. Odysseus then woke up and shut the bag and started to bellow at his men, but if you think about it, it is Odysseus error because he could have just told them that there are winds in this bag and not to touch it. If he told them they would have it to use at another time. As you can see this is another bad decision that Odysseus made, but he does make good decisions like when he got back to Ithica. When Odysseus got back to Ithica he was dressed as old man as Athena had told him. When he got there he astonished to find out that his wife was to choose a new suitor.

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Works Cited Applebee, Arthur N. The Language of Literature. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 1997. Print. Homer , and Robert Fagles. The Odyssey. New York: Viking, 1996. Print.