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Book Summary: The Odyssey

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The Odyssey The Summary
Books one through eight begin the story and set the stage for the entire epic. The first book, "Athena Inspires the Prince," basically speaks for itself. Athena comes in disguise as one of Odysseus's friend and tells Telemachus to go out and learn of his father's journey and death. Book two is when Telemachus leaves Ithaca to discover what he can about his father. Book three simply describes what Telemachus' father accomplished in the Trojan War. Telemachus then journeys to Sparta where he visits with the King and Queen . In Sparta, he discovers that his father is indeed alive. The King of Sparta also informs Telemachus that his father is being held captive on a Island with a Nymph. In book five, the epic changes settings …show more content…

The plot, for instance, was very creative and had a distinct flow to it. The plot was a romance and was filled with action. This gave the plot a creative and more interesting way to make events happen. The writing in these books was detailed and descriptive and the writing style was an important factor needed for the epic. The way that Homer made his writing come alive was amazing. While reading the books, I always retained a distinct picture of the various scenes and storyline in my head. I also enjoyed how creative and smart Homer made his characters. Each character was very well thought-out and assembled. However, I disliked the fact that Homer incorporated so many events and I also did not like some of his writing techniques. In particular, I did not like the slow story pace. At some points in these books, I felt as though the scenes dragged on for far too long. The God's favoritism made me lose a lot of respect for many of the characters like Odysseus and Telemachus. There was also a lot of repetition in these books as some points in books one through eight I knew I had read several times already. One of my least favorite parts of books one through eight was how whinny and how much of a cry baby Odysseus was. In my mind, he should have been strong and confident. It was at these points in the books that I lost a lot of respect for Odysseus Although I disliked many parts of this book, I truly enjoyed and loved the overall

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