The Oddessy 2 Essay, Research Paper

A person who remains anonymous once said, The best way out of a

Problem, is through it. Evidence of this statement is seen in several episodes of the epic poem, The Odyssey by, Homer. Odysseus is able to

face different problems, rather than avoiding them throughout his epic

adventure. Odysseus s ability to face difficult problems is best shown in

The Cyclopes, The Sirens, and Scylla and Charybdis.

In the episode, The Cyclopes illustrations of the statement, The

best way out of a problem, is through it are shown. For instance, Odysseus

could have killed the Cyclopes when he was standing in front of the door to

the cave but, he and his men never would have been able to get out of the

cave. Another example is, when Odysseus tells Polyphemus his name is

Noh-body, he is preparing for when he and his men put the stick through the

Cyclopes eye. So when the cyclopes runs to get help from the other

Cyclopes they will ask him what the man s name is, and he will say

Noh-bdy, which sounds like nobody, so they think there is nothing wrong

with him. During the episode of The Cyclopes , Odysseus did not try to

avoid the problem in order to solve it.

Throughout the episode of The Sirens instances are seen proving the

statement, The best way out of a problem, is through it . One

example of this, is when Odysseus has his men tie him to the mast of the

ship, so he can still hear the sirens, but not be able to go to them. A second

example of this statement, is when Odysseus puts Beeswax in his crew s

ears, so that they wont hear the sirens, but Odysseus will still be able to hear them sing their song. This adventure has shown many instances proving the

statement to be true.

In the adventure of Scylla and Charybdis proof of the statement,

The best way out of a problem, is through it is seen. Odysseus has his

crew steer the ship straight toward Scylla, he does this instead of heading

toward Charybdis, where he would loose all of his men instead of just some.

Another example is when, Odysseus keeps reassuring his men they will be

safe and that they have been in worse situations than this, and that they

should trust him. Instead of avoiding the problem completely, Odysseus

chooses the less severe of two possible solutions, Either way, he will loose

some men, it is whether he looses all of them along with his ship, or just 6

of his men.

The episodes of The Odyssey that have been mentioned, are just a few

of the several episodes that give truth to the statement, The best way out of

a problem, is through it . These episodes have shown many examples of the

statement. It seems to be obvious and logical why people believe the

statement to be true. The statement is a good guideline to use in

life as difficult problems or situations arise.