The challenges, temptations, and abyss are what change initiates into heroes and show if they are up to the challenge. Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo, Odysseus from The Odyssey, and Santiago from The Alchemist, and all face a number of challenges, temptations, and an abyss throughout their hero's journey and they all overcome these hardships, proving their heroicness. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantes has a paradisiacal life before his journey begins. While he is in the Chateau d’If prison, he meets a priest named Abbe. He teaches Dantes about God, economics, reading, writing, math, and science. These lessons are hard for Dantes to learn and understand, posing a great challenge, but he perseveres and is eventually successful. …show more content…
He battles Polyphemus, Scylla, and Charybdis, and has his crew’s ships destroyed by Laestrygonians. Once Odysseus returns home, he faces the challenge of fighting the suitors who have overrun his home. First, he must, “lineup twelve axes with their handles in the air and fire his arrows through the rings.” This task is hard to suitors but easy for Odysseus. At this point it is clear Odysseus is significantly more powerful than the average man. After completing the task with ease, Odysseus and Telemachus battle and kill all the suitors and Odysseus’ bravery shines brightly after successfully completing multiple challenges. The Land of the Dead is a place no man wants to end up and is described as a “‘...place of death and sorrow.’”; this is his abyss. He is forced to recognize his mortality and he realizes how much he misses his family. Long before this, Odysseus met the first of two temptations, Calypso. She attempts to persuade him to leave Penelope and stay with her, but she is only enchanting him.After seven years, Hermes finally frees him from her island. Odysseus sets out and travels with his men, eventually meeting Circe. She seduces Odysseus’ crew with her powers and lures them inside. Odysseus would have fallen for her spell too if it was not for his assistance from …show more content…
She is the threshold guardian and describes his dream about his treasure at the Pyramids. She tells him his dream is an omen and encourages him to go to the Pyramids. Just like Odysseus and Dantes, he faces challenges. His first challenge crossing the desert. Crossing the desert takes energy, time, and bravery and is a consistent issue. After miles of trekking across the desert for many weeks, Santiago eventually meets the Alchemist. They continue their journey through the desert until one day when three soldiers capture them. The alchemist makes a deal with the soldiers; if Santiago can turn himself into the wind in three days, they will be set free, forcing Santiago to face two more challenges. First, he must quickly learn the Language of the World. To do so, he thoroughly examines himself and the world around him. He has to learn that connecting with the Soul of the World is a very difficult task. Three days pass and it is now the day Santiago must turn himself into the wind. At the climax of the story, he steps out onto a cliff. The desert speaks to Santiago and asks him, “what is love?” Santiago, deeply in love with Fatima answers, “Love is the falcon’s flight over your sands. Because for him, you are a green field, field from which he always returns with game. He knows your rocks, your dunes, and your mountains, and you are generous to him.” This answer shows Santiago has grown up and
He doesn’t feel like living if he can’t be at home with his wife, son, and home, which actively displays extreme loyalty towards them. Odysseus leaves Circe’s island and sails to the Land of the Dead, a.k.a. the underworld. Here, he speaks to Tiresias who tells him anguish lies ahead in his journey and that he must go to Thrinakia, the land of Helios’ cows. Following this, he sees the
We came to the coastline of the Lotus-Eaters(88,984)... In the next land we found were Cyclopes(109,986).” Because odysseus is well traveled he is heroic. Additionally, he is a great warrior. Odysseus gets himself in many battles and fights and wins every one.
Circe changes Odysseus, she humbles him. She knows of the task that lie ahead of him
The Importance of Perseverance At many times in people’s lives, they consider giving up. This is also true for Santiago, the protagonist in Paulo Coelho's fantasy novel The Alchemist. Santiago is on a journey to find a hidden treasure he saw in a dream. Along this journey he continues to contemplate whether he should just give up, or continue his adventure.
•Edmond Dantès: Protagonist. Edmond’s unequivocal happiness is cut short when his enemies, who are blinded by their jealousy and self-bitterness, plot against him. Edmond’s gullibility and willingness to incoherently trust everyone around him precipitates his downfall. His destruction of character and desire for vengeance leads him to overstep moral boundaries. With the transformation of Edmond into the Count of Monte Cristo, he experiences a metaphorical death, the death of his virtuous self.
He thought “Hoisting high that olive stake with its stabbing point, straight into the monsters’ eye they rammed it hard- I drove my weight on it from above and bored it home . . .” (9, 223). Odysseus used his courage when he chose to follow this plan of his that involved stabbing a cyclops that towered above all his men and himself greatly. He used his strength to attack and was driven by honor in this situation proving once more, he is the archetype of a warrior.
Naturally, he has much to be proud of: his sexy and loyal wife, his bravery, and his victorious battles from the Trojan War and beyond. However, his arrogance creates a weakness in his character that negatively impacts himself and the people around him. The evolution in Odysseus’s personality turns him from an arrogant flaunter to a humble man, and demonstrates that the strifes he encounters during his journey home is not simply new experiences, but also his beginning of a profound revelation. Starting from the middle of the mountain, Odysseus’s new transformation will allow him to soar to the top with eagle
In The Odyssey Homer makes Odysseus’ journey to his beloved Ithaca excruciating. Odysseus encounters many friends and foes throughout his journey and has to be a leader throughout his experiences. As an example, he encounters Polyphemus and Poseidon, both of whom make his journey mentally and physically painful. Odysseus faces countless scenarios in which he has to save multiple people in those situations. He also encounters the suitors, who are a group of men that try to marry Penelope, when he returns to reclaim his home.
Odysseus, a war hero, struggles to return home with his men.(CD) Odysseus acts with much bravery, as is shown in his conflict with Polyphemus, however he sometimes allows his pride to get the best of him.(CM) Odysseus often shows guile, being the mind behind the Trojan horse. (CM) Odysseus tries to work together with his men so they can get home.(CD) This does not work well at times, as his men act somewhat mutinous.(CD) Overall, Odysseus maintains a very strong motivation, and he displays usefulness in difficult situations.(CM)
In book 12 of The Odyssey, Odysseus and his remaining men encountered many problems that drastically changed the process of returning home. After the proper burial of Eplenor, Circe gives Odysseus advice to handle the dangers on the way home. Odysseus led his men to the island of Thrinacia, which contains the cattle of the sun. In this episode, Odysseus’s loyalty, bravery, compassion, and faith to return home with his men is shown, despite the many obstacles faced along the way. Odysseus faced many challenges in this episode that hardened and delayed his homecoming.
Odysseus is a warrior who has been through struggle after struggle, so the idea of a having an easy-out, a life of complete relaxation, is extremely tempting. Calypso is the cage that is trapping
During his travels with the Alchemist, Santiago yearns to turn himself into the wind; however, he hesitates in even trying to do so, saying “‘But I have no idea
He meets a priest Abbe Faria who helps figure out how his conspirators locked him up. • Dantes escapes prison and is seeking revenge. He takes the identity of Count of Monte Cristo. A very powerful and wealthy person. He uses his new identity to find the people that put him away so he could get his revenge.
In The Inferno, Dante is the hero of the story. Dante is the man exiled from his home as a result of his political struggles and beliefs with the choice between evil and good. Dante’s heroism is in the form of humanity as he faces the challenge which all human beings struggle with. Dante’s courage is tested as he journeys through the rings of hell. According to Dante, “therefore look carefully; you’ll see such things/as would deprive my speech of all belief” (Alighieri, Dante. 1854).
Odysseus tells his stories to the Phaeacians, who gave him a safe passage home to Ithaca. Odysseus shares his adventures to the Land of Lotus Eaters, getting trapped in Polyphemus’ cave, having his men turned into pigs by Circe, journeying into the underworld for directions home, getting lured by sirens, his fight with Scylla and Charybdis, and his crew eating the cattle of Helios, which led him to his imprisonment with