Odysseus Vs Mitchell

How do the heros of our time compare to the heros of the past? When comparing Odysseus, a legendary hero from Homer’s The Odyssey, to Derick Mitchell, a veteran of the army, we can see many similarities and differences. Some similarities include their roles as leaders and their waiting families back home. However, there are many major differences that far outshadow them, like the differences in the technology available and their motives for doing certain things in war. There are many trivial similarities between Odysseus and Mr. Mitchell, but their overwhelming differences far outshine these negligible comparisons.
One similarity Odysseus and Mr. Mitchell share is their role as leaders on the battlefield. In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus leads
Mitchell also have a lot of differences when it comes to the motives behind their actions. In The Odyssey, Odysseus constantly makes decisions that is based off of personal gain and glory. Instead of putting other people’s lives above his own like we expect heroes to do today, Odysseus risks the lives of other people in order to bring himself up. When Odysseus escaped the Cyclop’s island along with most of his men, he shouted, “Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes’ son, whose home’s on Ithaca” (1062). Odysseus made this remark to Polyphemus as a way of rubbing it in his face that he was outsmarted. This decision was quite foolish, however, because it gave the giant information on who had hurt him, which caused Odysseus to be cursed. Odysseus also chose to put himself in danger by listening to the Sirens’ song in order to bring himself glory. In the military today, nothing is done for the sake of glory. They try to avoid dangerous situations when they can and do not carelessly risk the lives of others. Every man is supposed to look out for their comrades in today’s military, but Odysseus followed a very different set of rules when it came to that sort of stuff. He believed it was acceptable to throw away the lives of his men if it meant he got closer to returning home. The difference in Odysseus’s motives versus the motives of modern day heroes like Mr. Mitchell make up a major part of the contrasting qualities between