Part One

In book 17 of  The Odyssey by Homer that i read for my world literature class there was lots that happened that i wanted to write about. In the beginning  Telemachus leaves Odysseus with Eumaeus and he goes to his palace. He reunites with his mother Penelope and the nurse Eurycleia. When he sits down to eat with Penelope he tells his story of what happened and what he heard about Oddyseus in Pylos and Sparta but does not tell her that Odysseus is home. Theoclymenus then swears that Odysseus is in Ithaca at the time being . While all this is going on Eumaeus and Odysseus headed out to meet up with Telemachus in the palace. On the way to the palace they run into Melanthius who says mean things like "one scum nosing another scum along, dirt finds dirt by the will of God- it never fails!" (236-237). He also kicks Odysseus and knocks him off his path. I think that Melanthius is a cruel person for doing this Odysseus in no way deserved to get kicked he did nothing wrong. Could someone like Melanthius change? I think its possible but it would take a whole lot for him to change and a very long time. When Odysseus gets to the palace he gets the same welcome there. The suitors give him food but aren't happy about it and Antinous insults him and tells everyone not to give him food. "What spirit brought this pest to plague our feast? Back off! Into the open, clear of my table, or you, you'll soon land in an Egypt, Cyprus, to break your heart! (492-495). Odysseus cant hold back any longer and insults him as well but when he insults him Antinous hits him with a stool. I think this takes a lot of self control for Odysseus to not fight back when he is abused twice. I think that the biblical idea of  "turning the other cheek" is something that he had to do. Even the suitors thought that it was too much. Penelope hears about the rudeness and asks to speak to the beggar herself. Penelope wants information about Odysseus and wants to question the beggar. Odysseus doesn't want the suitors to see him talking to the Queen though so Eumaeus tells Penelope that " he talks to the point, he thinks as the next man would who wants to dodge their blows, that brutal crew. He tells you to wait here till the sun goes down. It's better for you, my queen. Then you can talk with the man in private, hear the stranger's news" (648-652). In the end of the book Eumaeus leaves Odysseus with Telemachus and the suitors.

GQ 1. Why doesn't Odysseus fight back when Antinious hits him?
       2. Did the suitors change from book 16 or are they the same?

Part Two

One of the reoccurring literary devices that Homer uses is epic machinery. In book 17 it appears once again when Telemachus is telling the story of his journey to Penelope his mother. Homer uses this literary device to make the reading more interesting especially when Oddyseus is retelling his stories in earlier books. Another literary device i found in book 17 is foreshadowing. "With that he entered the well-constructed palace, strode through the halls and joined the proud suitors. But the dark shadow of death closed down on Argo's eyes the instant he saw Odysseus, twenty years away" (357-360).  Homer is forshadowing that there will be death that is coming up. The deaths that will be coming up are the deaths of the suitors that Odysseus is planning to kill with Telemachus. A topic that we learned about earlier in the book is the host guest relationship. While Odysseus was on his journey there were a few good hosts that would lavish him with gifts and give him and his men great feasts. There were also terrible hosts that didn't want Odysseus and his men on their islands. In book 17 Odyssues in his disguise as a beggar gets hosted  well by Eumaeus. But when he goes to his palace and he begs for food there he gets bitter reactions and responses. The suitors go against the guest host relationship especially Melanthius and Antinous who hurt the guest.

GQ 1. How do the literary devices Homer uses make the book more interesting?
       2. Why does Antinous go against the guest host relationship?

Part Three

In book 17 i noticed three themes. One of the themes I noticed is mind over strength. Although strength is very important concept sometimes one needs more than just strength. This is portrayed in book 17 when Odysseus wants to take down the suitors that are occupying his palace. Odysseus knows he is no match for all the young and strong suitors so he uses his wits to devise a plan with his son Telemachus. By using a disguise they do not even know that he is there and he can take them all down. This ties into another theme in the book disguises. By being disguised as a beggar Odysseus can plan what he wants to do without them finding out who he is. The only person that knows the disguise is Telemachus. Odysseus uses his disguise to distinguish those who actually love him. When he arrives to the palace his old dog Argos is one of the first to recognize him while disguised. Also, by asking each suitor for scraps of food he determines which ones are good and which ones are bad. He figures out through begging that Antinous is one of the people he wants to kill. This brings us to the last theme i found which was food. Whenever food is brought up there seems to be a negative consequence following. For example when Odysseus's men eat the food of the lotus, when his men slaughter the Sun's flocks,  When Scylla swallows six of his men, and the Cyclops eats humans. All of these brought negative consequences when food was mentioned. In this book there is a negative consequence too. When Odysseus in his disguise begs for a scrap of food from Antinous he ends up taking a hit from him. Antinous does not want to give him even a little scrap of food so Odysseus insults him and in return Antinous tosses a stool and hits him square in the back. When I read this it made me think of a article i read a few months ago about an incident happening in Sri Lanka. There were innocent beggars being randomly killed in horrible ways which is really cruel. Here is a link to the article :

http://www.lankatruth.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5961:another-beggar-killed-killing-spree-continues&catid=35:local&Itemid=62

GQ: 1.If there was a helpless old man begging you for just a little bit of food what would you do?
        2. Are beggars harmful people that deserve to be hurt or killed?

Culture

The final theme that i noticed in The Doll's House would be culture. It isn't too dominant of a theme but there are many little things that reference to the Norwegian culture. I noticed they mentioned eating truffles and oysters a lot and also a food called Strasbourg pate. Strasbourg pate is geese liver which they put into a bread and it's eaten in lots of places but very popular in Norway. Another food they mentioned was macaroons which is basically like a cookie and its eaten for dessert.

 

They also mentioned the Tarantella dance a lot which is a folk dance in which they are dressed in traditional outfits and its generally couples dancing or large groups of girls and guys dancing. These are important to know to fully understand the play. Nowadays it's really important to take the time and learn about other cultures because culture shapes peoples identities. Another significance of learning cultures would be; what people think and how they view things changes and shapes the world. 

Respect

Another theme or issue that I found was important in the play A Doll's House is respect. Although it may seem that Torvald does respect his wife by buying her things and keeping her company he really does not respect her. The definition I found for respect is : the state of being regarded with honor or esteem. Torvald does not honor his wife he does the opposite. When I think of respect I think of treating someone the way that I would want to be treated. I'm positive that Torvald would not have wanted to be caged up the way that Nora was so i don't think that he respected her. I found a really sad video on youtube that's on statistics about woman suffering that's going on right now that made me think about Nora.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp4K6dQe3lE

 After watching this video the first time I felt furious and wished I could help these women. I think its really sad that today with all the advancements that we have and all the progression we have gone through that there is still a large sum of women who are going through things that they do not deserve. Every human deserves respect and these woman definetly are not getting it. Although Nora's respect wasn't stepped on as much as the women in this video were, she was still disrespected by Torvald.                       

Free At Last

The second theme in the play A Doll's house would be women being oppressed. Torvald's wife Nora is very oppressed and looked down upon. The way Torvald talks to Nora shows it. He calls her his "little bird" and birds are usually kept in cages as pets as Nora was. Torvald also restricts her from certain things. For example he doesn't let her eat as many macaroons as she would like to eat. I don't think its right for any man to control anything a women does especially when it comes down to something like food. She should be able to eat whatever she wants whenever she wants he has no right to keep her from eating macaroons. I found a poem that really sounds like something that Nora would have written before leaving Torvald.

Why should I listen to you
tell me what to do?
You don't know who I am
or the things that I've been through.

I'm on the outside looking in,
somewhere you've never been.
So who cares who I am,
or what it is I think or say,
what it is I write,
or why I act this way;

You have no standards anyway,
never understand a thing I say.
Your mediocrity at it's best.
So who even cares about the rest?

I'm disgusted by your weakness
tempered with your fragile meekness.
You're just another tragedy,
a messed up lie was your gift to me.

I never have perfected
the tolerance you've expected.
It's so simple but you just can't see,
that you'll never understand
someone like me;

So different from everything
that you believe,
I'm sick of the life you've given me.
All I want is to be free.
POEM BY: CHRISTY Z

When I read this poem I instantly thought of Nora. Torvald really did not understand her and she wished he did. He never managed to so she got tired of the life he had given her and she wanted to be free. Nora broke out of her cage and soared away from Torvald. I have a lot of respect for her for doing that because its really hard to leave everything especially kids and she left hers in order to live a life that she never had but always desired. Oppression was a big issue back then and still is in some countries. There are places today where  woman still can not work, drive, they have to be covered, they get abused, and have very unequal opportunities because men are viewed as superior. I think these woman deserve to be set free and the only way they can is by doing what Nora did, leave everything behind and don’t look back.

'It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all". -Alfred Lord Tennyson

After reading an interesting play in my world literature class with my favorite teacher Ms. Israel  I found a few themes that I wanted to talk about. The play we read was A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. One of the main themes in the play is love. The main characters in the book Nora and Torvald end up separating. Nora realizes she wants to be free of Torvald's control and that she doesn't actually love Torvald so she leaves him. A song I found that relates to this would be now your gone by Basshunter. These are the lyrics to the song :

Now you're gone

I realized my love for you was strong

And I miss you here now you're gone

I keep waiting here by the phone

With your pictures hanging on the wall

Now you're gone

I realized my love for you was strong

And I miss you here now you're gone

I keep waiting here by the phone

With your pictures hanging on the wall

Is this the way it's meant to be?

Only dreaming that you're missing me

I'm waiting here at home

I'll be crazy now you're gone

There's an empty place in my heart

Without my Anna it will break apart

It won't heal, it never fades away

I'll be thinking 'bout you everyday

Are you ready? Now you're gone

I realized my love for you was strong

And I miss you here now you're gone

I keep waiting here by the phone

With your pictures hanging on the wall

Is this the way it's meant to be?

Only dreaming that you're missing me

I'm waiting here at home

I'll be crazy now you're gone

Now you're gone

I realized my love for you was strong

And I miss you here now you're gone

I keep waiting here by the phone

With your pictures hanging on the wall

Is this the way it's meant to be?

Only dreaming that you're missing me

And I'm waiting here at home

I'll be crazy now you're gone

There's an empty place in my heart

It won't alarm me, it will break apart

It won't heal, it never fades away

I'll be thinking 'bout you everyday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgFwiCApH7E&ob=av2e

The lyrics that mostly relate to Torvald would be the part when Basshunter says " now your gone i realize my love for you was strong and i miss you here". That is something that Torvald would say, he really didn't want Nora to leave and he kept asking her to stay but she didn't want to stay. The other part of the song that relates to Torvald would be when Basshunter says " Is this the way its meant to be? Only dreaming that your missing me and I'm waiting here at home ill be crazy now your gone". Torvald tells Nora that he will wait for her at home and asked if he could send her letters and help her out but she said no that she doesn't ever want to see him again. I think Nora did a good job of leaving Torvald she was caged up by Torvald and needed some freedom from everything. She will now be able to live her life according to how she wants it to be. Hopefully Torvald's broken heart heals with time.