Tuesday, February 26, 2008
BA #5
Telemachus shows to be a true hero in chapter twenty by standing up for everyone in Odysseus's house. There are endless times in this chapter he is standing up for people. He also stands up for himself and makes a change that everyone can see from being a boy to becoming a man. Telemachus also stood up against the suitors telling them "This is no public place, this is Odysseus' house my father won it for me, so it 's mine" (book 20 line292-294). Telemachus was was making a statment that "No insults now, no brawling, no or it's war between us all" (book 20, line 295-296).
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4 comments:
While Telemachus indeed defends his father in book twenty, I feel it is nothing more than a reactionary defense of the stranger by Telemachus. He is quick to warn the suitors not to threaten the beggar but they do anyway, and Telemachus threatens them again but soon their sights aim at Telemachus himself. "Now all the Suitors""started Heckling Telemachus" (20.417,418). To which Telemachus did or said nothing, just looking towards his father waiting for Odysseus to make a move.
I agree completely that Telemachus defends not only his father and mother and their palace but his manhood. He finally becomes a man when he finds the inner strength to speak out against the suitors in his house. "There is no escaping it, no way out..." (20.411). Telemachus has shown the biggest personal change throughout the Odyssey making him one of the heroes if not the major hero of the current book, not the flash-back portions, Odysseus would be the hero of the flash-backs.
I agree that Telemachus has defended not only his mother, father, and palace, but he has defended himself. He is finding the "courage inside me" (16. 343). The courage that he told his father he would soon see coming from his son. Telemachus has had the courage to work with Odysseus to take down the weapons and hide them from the suitors, that they had planned to rid out of the palace. Telemachus has gained the courage stand by his fathers side to fight off the suitors. Telemachus has also had the courage to lie to his mother who has brought him up all these years, to protect his father from the suitors until he and Odysseus could attack the suitors.
Telemachus, I agree, is a wonderful hero, especially recently. He has finally become a man and he says so in Book 20. He tells all the suitors that he is no longer the boy he used to be and he makes all the suitors shut up and step back and take a look at this new man.
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