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Growing Up Without A Father In Homer's Odyssey

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Fathers are some of the most influential people there will ever be; they teach you some of the basic rules of life, they show you how to act, they lead you when you don’t know what to do. But what happens when you grow up without a father? In The Odyssey, written by Homer, we follow the story of a man who, on the day of his son’s birth, was forced to go to war. Odysseus was gone for a painstakingly long 20 years, and during that time, Telemachus grew up watching his mother struggle. As the queen of Ithaca, Penelope had many suitors fighting for her hand: the king was gone and they took control. They trashed the palace, took advantage of the law, and disrespected the throne. As a young boy, Telemachus had no power over the situation and was …show more content…

With only one parent, time management may be very difficult. Marilyn Mangum, 37, says,”’Being a single parent and working full-time, it’s hard to find time to do anything other than just take care of the necessities of life’”(Foerstner 2). Mangum’s children, and other single-parent children for that matter, don’t get to do the extra activities that other children their age get to do. With both parents, there are multiple schedules that can be rearranged to accommodate the child, but with only one parent, they have their own busy schedule. This can also show how Telemachus must have felt in his father’s absence. His father wasn’t around to show him his city and how to rule it, he was forced to sit back, powerless, in the palace with his mother. Children with single parents also miss out on quality time that they should be able to spend with them. Martha Medina, another single mother with two boys, stated,”’There was no time for a movie in the evening or bowling. I kept having to give up things I wanted to so with the boys’”(Foerstner 2). Even though she cares about her children, Martha was too busy dealing with her own problems to spend time with her boys. Her children will miss out on fun activities because they don’t have a father there to help support the family. This also connects back to how Queen Penelope was too busy dealing with the suitors and never had time to be around Telemachus. With only one parent, a child will completely lose any extra time and care that they could have had with both of their

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