odyssey essay
Maddie Bush
Mr. Sorenson
English 1 period 3
3 February 2015
The Power of Language Figurative language has power in writing. It is a tool that most authors use to show emphasis on how important or scary or beautiful something is. This relates to, Homer’s use of figurative language in the epic poem, The Odyssey. Throughout this epic, Odysseus is on a journey back home to Ithaca. Homer uses figurative language to convey that the Land of the Dead as a terrifying and transformative setting for Odysseus’s development as a hero. In general, figurative language helps the reader know how important, terrifying, or happy the setting is. In this specific poem, Homer uses descriptive language to show how repulsive the Land of the Dead is. Odysseus enters the Land of the Dead because Circe sees something bad happening to him in the future. For instance, when Odysseus and his ship mates arrive in the Land of the Dead, Homer graphically describes the land: “We bore down on the ship at the sea’s edge / and launched her on the salt immortal sea” (The Odyssey lines 526-27). Homer uses a personification to move people’s emotions and show how deadly and ghastly this place is. The sea is described as an immortal sea which the author tries to communicate as an endless sea showing its immensity. Figurative language is shown in the poem when Odysseus is in purgatory and sees one of his dead shipmates. Homer characterizes his shipmate as, “lay unburied still on the wide earth / as we left him- dead in Circe’s hall, / untouched, unmourned, when other cares compelled us” (lines 590-93). Homer uses repetition to explain Odysseus’s shipmate and how he his dead and untouched meaning that he is laying in the same spot he died in not buried. This effected Odysseus because he was not prepared to see and talk to his deceased shipmate. Homer expressed the community in the land of the dead in a tragic way. Homer writes “now came the soul of Anticlea, dead, / my mother, daughter of Autolycus, / dead
Mr. Sorenson
English 1 period 3
3 February 2015
The Power of Language Figurative language has power in writing. It is a tool that most authors use to show emphasis on how important or scary or beautiful something is. This relates to, Homer’s use of figurative language in the epic poem, The Odyssey. Throughout this epic, Odysseus is on a journey back home to Ithaca. Homer uses figurative language to convey that the Land of the Dead as a terrifying and transformative setting for Odysseus’s development as a hero. In general, figurative language helps the reader know how important, terrifying, or happy the setting is. In this specific poem, Homer uses descriptive language to show how repulsive the Land of the Dead is. Odysseus enters the Land of the Dead because Circe sees something bad happening to him in the future. For instance, when Odysseus and his ship mates arrive in the Land of the Dead, Homer graphically describes the land: “We bore down on the ship at the sea’s edge / and launched her on the salt immortal sea” (The Odyssey lines 526-27). Homer uses a personification to move people’s emotions and show how deadly and ghastly this place is. The sea is described as an immortal sea which the author tries to communicate as an endless sea showing its immensity. Figurative language is shown in the poem when Odysseus is in purgatory and sees one of his dead shipmates. Homer characterizes his shipmate as, “lay unburied still on the wide earth / as we left him- dead in Circe’s hall, / untouched, unmourned, when other cares compelled us” (lines 590-93). Homer uses repetition to explain Odysseus’s shipmate and how he his dead and untouched meaning that he is laying in the same spot he died in not buried. This effected Odysseus because he was not prepared to see and talk to his deceased shipmate. Homer expressed the community in the land of the dead in a tragic way. Homer writes “now came the soul of Anticlea, dead, / my mother, daughter of Autolycus, / dead