Gabe Gibson
Mrs. Stone
English 9 Period 5
February 16th 2023
Leadership Comparison Essay Two popular fiction stories are The Odyssey by Homer and O Brother, Where Art Thou by the Coen brothers. The two stories share a few things in common, one being that the main character is depicted as a great leader. While both men are leaders, Odysseus is smarter, stronger, and undeniably better than Everett in most realms of human endeavor. Imagine a man that sailed the sea for 10 years, conquered colossal cyclops, made a fool of unnerving sea monsters, and overtook the inconceivable god of the sea, Poseidon. This man is Odyssus from The Odyssey. Odysseus led thousands of men towards home after a well earned victory at a far away country named Troy. On his way back, he came upon an island that was inhabited by a giant one-eyed monster named Polyphemus. Odysseus lost 6 men to this monster and barely escaped with his life. His 6 men were
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While both men faced tremendous challenges, Odysseus simply faced more treacherous tasks. The cyclops Odysseus fought can be compared to the bible salesmen Everett fought. They were both bigger, and stronger than the leader, and had more resources. However, the cyclops Odysseus faced was unequivocally larger. Odysseus faced a 30 foot man whereas Everetts was only a few inches taller than he. There were also the challenges of the sirens. Everett was knocked out by the 3 singing women. Odysseus faced many more sirens - whose effect is much stronger than to womens - and was the only man ever to live after hearing them. More examples like these arise when you look further into the argument. While odysseus might have lost all of his men, he also faced multiple gods, and other immortal entities. Everett faced only humanly challenges, and still barely lived. This shows the obvious superiority in ability to lead others that Odysseus holds over
For instance, when he encounters the Sirens, he tells his men to plug their ears with beeswax. Odysseus has overcome many obstacles on his journey home. For example he and his men built then hide in the Trojan Horse, and were brought into the city of Troy. Later, when everyone was asleep they attacked and destroyed the city of Troy. Odysseus meets Polyphemus, the Cyclops, when
A second thing that Odysseus did that shows better leadership than Everett is when they were in the land of Aeaea. In Aeaea, the witch Circe turned all of the people who came near into animals. All of Odysseus' crew that went near got turned into pigs. The gods gave Odysseus a herb so that he would not turn into a pig. Since he didn’t turn into a pig she thought that she was superior and turned all of his crew back into humans.
Before Odysseus and his men passed the sirens he told all his men to stuff their ears with wax so only he can hear the sirens “ Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men's ears with wax that none of them may hear”(55). This shows why Odysseus is a bad leader because he knew they were going to pass the sirens and only wanted himself to experience
Odysseus must brave monsters, defeat a cyclops, and make many difficult decisions, some that will leave him heartbroken. Throughout these challenges he never fails to serves as a symbol of home, hope and bravery to his crew.
His modesty came to a test. Odysseus has to hide his identity from everyone, including his wife and children as a beggar. He has to endure all the insults that came out from all the suitors. If he had failed to do so, he may not have the chance to oust the suitors and get his family back. On the other hand, Everett has started to act more considerately, he no longer thinks that he is the leader of the chain gang, and starts to think so them as more of a companion.
Influential Leadership Odysseus, the protagonist of The Odyssey an epic by Homer, exemplifies the characteristics of a good leader by inspiring his peers and growing as a character. One of the most important qualities that Odysseus possesses is his ability to motivate and inspire those around him and to be trusted by his followers. While approaching Scylla and Charybdis, Odysseus gives his crew a motivational speech with a line saying, “Friends, have we never been in danger before this?”(p510 ln 601). By saying this, the crew is comforted and prepared for whatever comes at them.
A great leader views the world like he is looking through 3D glasses, always seeing the depth and vibrancy of the possibilities around him. A bad leader is like a cyclops wearing an eyepatch, never able to see his mighty hand in front of his own face. In The Odyssey, Homer illustrates the journey home to Ithaca taken by Odysseus and his men. Unfortunately, Odysseus makes poor choices throughout his travels and his actions often do more harm than good. Two character traits define Odysseus and shape his poor leadership style.
First, Odysseus and Everett share an abundance of epic hero qualities. Everett shows his courage when he disguised as KKK to free Tommy. This parallels to when Odysseys and his crew hide under the sheep and defeats the mighty Polyphemus. Everett is a cunning, quick-tongued, sharp leader, which is the same as Odysseus. Also, Pete and Delmar appear to be as dumb as the crew written in the Odyssey.
Even though they had the same goal the people who helped them, the children they wanted to see, and the challenges they faced once they got there were really different. Both Odysseus and Everett attempted to get back home to their wife with crews that were very unlike,but had some similarities to each other. Odysseus had many men 600 to be exact and they knew to an extent what they were getting into. Each one of Odysseus’s men in The Odyssey choose to go or were forced to go to the Trojan War, but they knew the end goal of beating the Trojans.
In the epic story the Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus is returning from the Trojan war, and on his way home he finds many obstacles ahead of him. Odysseus is the ruler of Ithaca and he is trying to return home to his land. Many creatures try and stop him from achieving his goal of returning home, but he and his crew have to push through and get home. Odysseus portrays bravery and courage leading his crew through these tough challenges. Odysseus heroically leads his crew and himself through dangerous obstacles, but also foolishly endangers them during the journey home.
Ultimately Odysseus can be a good leader but behind the scenes, he's not. He may of saved his men multiple times, but also got them killed them due to his neglect. He might be intelligent but really he tolerably manipulated his crew by saying things such as “don’t you want to go back to your home again?”. In closing, throughout the whole story, Odysseus progresses himself and designates many Greek
Lastly, Odysseus illustrates good leadership through his use of determination. In the Circe episode, Circe persuades Odysseus and his men to stay with her. Homer explains how the
Throughout the story “The Odyssey” by Homer Odysseus, the main character counters countless amounts of trouble. As king and leader it is his job to keep his men save and get the job done. Odysseus does whatever it takes to keep his men unharmed, and more importantly, alive. All his crew and him dream about is getting back to their homeland, but first they have to pass the obstacles. Odysseus demonstrates good leadership qualities by doing whatever it takes to get the job done, using his advanced cunning abilities to trick his enemy, and constantly saving his crew from dangers.
Once in a while leaders can get occupied, even the considerable ones, however they must understand that they committed an error and must endure the outcomes. Various leaders lead for the recognition. Odysseus from The Odyssey and Everett from O Brother Where Art Thou were both astonishing leaders and their men admired them. In spite of their likenesses there are a few things that set them apart. Despite the fact that Everett and Odysseus are similar, Everett has better initiative abilities, which at last causes him and his group get to where they have to go.
In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus repeatedly shows that he is polytropos, for as Zeus says “There is no mortal half so wise”(3). Using his wits, Odysseus gets him and his men out of several sticky situations in the Odyssey, proving his leadership through his actions that save the lives of his crew member. On the other hand Odysseus’ streak of constantly outsmarting challenges, goes to his head, and unfortunately causes Odysseus to develop a hubris. His pride at times makes him arrogant, believing that he always knows best, which leads to the untimely demise of his crew. While Odysseus proves to be good leader by saving his crew from trouble with his wits, he is ultimately a bad leader because he refuses to listen to advice.