...Folktale Motifs of the Nausikaa Episode in The Odyssey In Book VI of The Odyssey, the tale of princess Nausikaa exhibits the folklore motifs of struggle, lust, persuasion, marriage, determinedness, and gender roles that are historically valued in Western culture. People perceive the episode of Nausikaa and the Phaiakians in different ways. Book VI is a wonderful representation of a "fairy-tale" encounter that simply allows those who are involved to experience hope and change. In the Nausikaa episode, innocence is almost lost, persuasion becomes a method for salvation, kindness is overabundant, and genuineness to the self is of great importance. Folktales have been used throughout history to pass along customs, beliefs, and ways of life. They have influenced society's structure and development, along with metaphorically reminding and teaching people about how things were in the past and should be in the future. In Book VI of The Odyssey, Odysseus is washed onto the shore of the island of the Phaiakians, is wakened by the princess Nausikaa and her maidens, and his encounters are filled with folktale motifs. These motifs are cliché elements that constitute the Nausikaa episode, are defined in nonfictional culture, and express the themes of persuasion, eroticism, forbidden beauty, social norms, and rebirth. John Arnott MacCulloch, a Scottish author whom wrote many works on mythology and folklore, describes folktales and relates their use in culture and The Odyssey's Book...
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...Odysseus wants Nausikaa to see that he is not to be feared by complementing her on beauty and letting her know he only needs help. He says, "Never have I laid eyes on equal beauty in man or woman/And yet my case is desperate" (Book VI. 173 and 181). He is deliberating on whether he should touch her knees in the gesture of a suppliant or to stay away and trusting to words. He has an olive branch to cover his nakedness when walking towards Nausikaa. Odysseus chooses to please her with his words, hoping that she will be willing to help him. He tells her that his ship has been wrecked, he needs clothing, wants to find his way to town and that he thinks the gods have cursed him from getting home. Odysseus being naked is another cry out for help,...
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...EXAMINATION OF DUTY AND SELF CONTROL IN THE ODYSSEY Aashna Jamal INTRODUCTION Under the rule of Zeus, events did not occur in isolation but in interdependence causing there to be a flux in the totality of events and the whole drama being played on a cosmic plane. The central theme of Zeus’s rule is the preservation of his “ oikos” or household management where the prevalence of order over Chaos is of utmost importance. In this paper, using the Odyssey as a case study, I will examine the thematic importance of the decisions taken by a hero in accordance to or defiance of self control and pietas and the consequences they lead to. These expectations are clearly marked out for the reader who waits in anticipation to garner the fate of the hero. I will analyse the themes of self control and pietas or duty in the Odyssey and discuss their special significance in this epic. I will then briefly talk about the Hindu concept of duty or Dharma with reference to the Ramayana. I however do not intend to use the concept of monomyth coined by Joseph Campbell also referred to as the hero's journey(which is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world.) in comparing these epics. The example of the Ramayana will only serve my purpose of highlighting the theme of duty in mythologies across the world. Lastly, I will conclude with the importance of inspecting these themes because of their significance to the plotline. Georg Wissowa notes that pietas was...
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...Open Letter to a Young Negro (by Jesse Owens) All black men are insane…. Almost any living thing would quickly go mad under the unrelenting exposure to the climate created and reserved for black men in a white racist society…. I am secretly pleased about the riots. Nothing would please the tortured man inside me more than seeing bigger and better riots everyday. Those words were spoken by Bob Teague to his young son in Letters to a Black Boy. He wrote these letters to “alert” his son to “reality” so that the boy wouldn’t be caught off guard—unprepared and undone. Are his words true? Does a black man have to be just about insane to exist in America? Do all Negroes feel a deep twinge of pleasure every time we see a white man hurt and a part of white society destroyed? Is reality so stinking terrible that it’ll grab your heart out of your chest with one hand and your manhood with the other if you don’t meet it armed like a Nazi storm trooper? Bob Teague is no “militant.” He’s a constructive, accomplished journalist with a wife and child. If he feels hate and fear, can you ever avoid feeling it? Whether it’s Uncle Tom or ranting rioter doing the talking today, you’re told that you’ll have to be afraid and angry. The only difference is that one tells you to hold it in and the other tells you to let it out. Life is going to be torture because you’re a Negro, they all say. They only differ on whether you should grin and bear it...
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