Theme Of Descent In The Odyssey

Zac Yandell Mr. Wampach Humanities March 22, 2023 Our Heroes’ Descent In the Odyssey, Odysseus must enter the underworld while the Invisible Man must dive into the underground of Harlem to succeed in their journeys. In the Odyssey, Odysseus must descend by entering the land of the dead to complete his journey. In book 11, Odysseus travels to the underworld to speak with a prophet, and upon his arrival he gives offers and sees Elpenor, who says, “Don’t abandon me, unburied, unlamented.” Odysseus has now spoken to the first of the shades and appointed a dire warning. If he hadn’t spoken to Elpenor, he wouldn’t have known about the warning and gotten punished on his return trip. When he finally gets to the prophet, Teiresias tells him “If you leave them unharmed

This interaction not having happened would have doomed his entire journey to never happening, much less successfully. In all, Odysseus’ descent is a requirement of his journey, not only would he have faced the wrath of two separate gods on the return, he would not have known where to go and not have been able to complete his journey. In The Invisible Man, the main character must delve into the underground of Harlem to truly see. On page 342, as the invisible man starts to begin his speech, someone in the crowd yells at him, and “it was as though his voice was that of them all.” Before this moment the invisible man was blending into history, someone in the background, whereas now he feels the crowd he’s speaking to and prepares a speech to rile them up. He can finally see the crowd’s feelings, he can sense their emotion, and at this moment he looks into himself and finally says what's on his mind. Onwards and over the course of the book, the invisible man is disillusioned with the brotherhood, “I looked at