Lazy at School? Need to Pass?
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2. What was Scout dressed up as to go to the pageant? a. Turkey b. an apple c. a ham d. piece of bacon
3. Who did Scout find under her bed? a. Boo Radley b. Bob Ewell c. Dill d. a cat
4. Who was Mr. Ewell Bothering? a. Aunt Alexandra b. Helen Robinson c. Dill d. The Radleys
5. What was the name of the mad dog Atticus shot? a. Tim Johnson b. Tom Robinson c. Rover d. Scout
6. Mr. Dolphus Raymond gave Dill a drink of what to settle his stomach? a. whiskey b. Coca-Cola c. root beer d. water
7. Who saved Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell? a. Nathan Radley b. Atticus c. Tom Robinson d. Arthur Radley
8. Who followed Scout and Jem home after the pageant? a. Boo Radley b. Bob Finch c. Bob Ewell d. Cecil Jacobs
9. Who carried Jem back to the house after he was hurt? a. Arthur Radley b. Nathan Radley c. Atticus Finch d. Bob Ewell
10. Scout and ______, went through the house of horrors on Halloween. a. Jacob b. Cecil c. Arthur d. Dill
11. Why did Jem cry during the trial of Tom Robinson? a. Someone was punching him b. had something in his eye c. felt it wasn't fair. d. got a sliver in his toe.
12. Jem was how old when his arm was broken? a. 15 b. 12 c. 13 d. 14
13. Who did Atticus think killed Bob Ewell? a. Boo Radley b. Scout c. Jem d. Tom Robinson
14. How was Bob Ewell killed? a. Hit his head on the ground b. Boo squeezed him to death c. Scout got hold of a knife and stabbed him d. He stumbled, fell and landed on a knife. e. none of the above
15. When Jem and Scout made a snowman who did they first intend to make it look like? a. Calpurnia b. Miss Maudie c. Mr. Avery d. Stephanie Crawford
16. Who said it was a sin to kill a mockingbird? a. Uncle Jach b. Calpurnia c. Aunt Alexandra d. Atticus
17. What sport did Jem like most? a. baseball b. soccer c. football d. basketball
18. What does Scout think when she sees it snowing outside? a. The sky is falling b. It's snowing c. Santa Claus is here. d. The world is coming to an end.
19. Whose house caught on fire? a. Mrs, Dubose's b. Mrs. Maudie's c. Calpurnia's d. The Finches
20. Who was the man that sat with Jem and Scout in the court room? a. Reverend Sykes b. Mr. Ewell c. Atticus d. Mr. Tate
21. How did Jem break his arm? a. fell out of a tree b. fell out of two story window c. a man broke his arm d. fell off a skateboard
22. Why do you think Atticus never used a gun unless necessary? a. he felt uncertain of himself b. he felt he had an unfair advantage c. he wasn't a good shot d. his eyes were too bad to shoot
23. How does Dill customarily eat? a. with his mouth open b. in the left side of his mouth c. with his hands d. with his back teeth e. with his front teeth
24. Why did Scout miss her cue? a. talking with someone else and didn't hear it b. couldn't hear inside costume c. fell asleep d. none of the above
25. Boo Radley was a "Mockingbird." a. true b. false
26. Mr. Radley liked to say "If you can stand in someone else's shoes for a minute, it helps in understanding them. a. true b. false
27. Jem's favorite sport was a. soccer b. tennis c. baseball d. football
28. What do Dill, Scout, and Jem use to put the note into Boo's window? a. Stick b. rock c. fishing pole d. Calpurnia's yard stick.
29. Mayella Ewell said that Tom Robinson a. raped her b. strangled her c. beat her d. all of the above
30. Where does Charles Baker, Harris, usually live? a. Maycomb b. Finch's Landing c. Meridian d. Mobile
31. What kind of flowers did Mayella grow? a. geraniums b. chrysanthemums c. fuschias d. primroses
32. When the missionary women met in Atticus' house, who did they talk about being their favorite male person? a. Atticus Finch b. Heck Tate c. J. Grimes Evertt d. Harold Johnson
33. Who killed Bob Ewell a. Atticus Finch b. Arthur Radley c. Jem d. none of the above
34. Atticus said that in ________all men are treated equally. a. your own house b. a court c. school d. society
35. Atticus is reelected as a. the mayor. b. A deputy sheriff. c. a state legislator d. defense lawyer
36. Who tried to scare Jem and Scout before the pageant? a. Bob b. Dill c. Walter d. Cecil
37. Zeebo was a. the milk man b. Atticus' cat. c. Calpurnia's cat d. Calpurnia's son
38. Who was Tom Robinson's boss? a. Bob Ewell b. Heck Tate c. Link Deas d. none of the above
39. Mrs. Dubose was a sweet old lady who often made little cakes for the children. a. true b. false
40. Aunt Alexandra moved in with Atticus, Jem and Scout, because her house burned down. a. true b. false
41. How did Mr. Tom Robinson's left hand become handi-capped? a. He was thrown out of a tractor and his arm was run over. b. He got it stuck in a cotton gin. c. It was cut during a street fight and never healed correctly. d. He was born with a muscle deficiency.
42. Bob Ewell was killed by a. Jem b. Scout c. Boo Radley d. himself
43. Calpurnia learned to read from a. Blackstone's Commentaries b. newspapers c. her dad d. Reader's Digest
44. Atticus always said, "to understand someone, you had to ____." a. live with them b. know their mother c. walk in their shoes for awhile d. talk to them
45. Which is the definition of piety? a. Being doubtful b. having sympathy c. having a religious character about you. d. saying one thing, and doing another
46. Miss Maudie was Presbyterian. a. true b. false
47. What happened to Bob Ewell? a. He moved to Russia b. his daughter killed him. c. He fell on his own knife d. Jem killed him. e. none of the above
48. Mr. Underwood did what? a. Shot black people b. acted as a sheriff c. ran a newspaper d. ran a funeral parlor.
49. What did Tom do to get put in jail? a. Murdered someone b. shoplifted something c. raped someone d. he was a runaway slave. e. None of the above.
50. Who was Mr. Tate talking about when he said "taking the one man who's done you and this town a great service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight to me, that is a sin." a. Atticus b. Arthur c. Bob d. Jem.
Fahrenheit 451: The Test
Multiple Choice: Quotes
Identify
the speaker of the following quotes. Each speaker is used once.
Clarisse Guy Mildred Beatty Fabe
1. “There
must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a
burning house; there must be something there.
You don’t stay for nothing.”
______________________
2. “Out of
the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there’s your intellectual
pattern
for the past five centuries…”
______________________
3. “Oh,
just my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking. It’s like being a pedestrian, only
rarer. My uncle was arrested another
time – did I tell you? – for being a pedestrian. Oh, we’re most peculiar.”
______________________
4. “She’s nothing to me; she shouldn’t have had
books! It was her responsibility; she should’ve thought of that. I hate her.”
______________________
5. “If you
put it in your ear … I can sit comfortably home, warming my frightened bones,
and hear and analyze the firemen’s world, find its weaknesses without danger.
I’m the Queen Bee, safe in the hive. You will be the drone, the traveling ear.”
______________________
Multiple Choice: Literary Devices
Identify
the literary devices in the following sentences. Each term is used once.
personification allusion simile metaphor alliteration paradox
symbol
5. “[T]he
flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house.”
______________________
6. “He lay far across the room from her, on a winter island separated by an empty sea.”
______________________
7. “He opened the bedroom door. It was like
coming into the cold marbled room of a mausoleum after the moon has set.”
______________________
8. “The
Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live …”
________________
9.
“Denham’s Dandy Dental Detergent, Denham’s Dentrifice …” ______________________
10. “The
whole culture’s shot through. The skeleton needs melting and reshaping.”
______________________
11. “ …
she seemed hypnotized by the salamander on his arm and the phoenix disc on his
chest …” ______________________
Multiple Choice: Theme
Identify
the themes illustrated in the following sentences. Each theme is used once.
conformity change and transformation alienation and loneliness
censorship reliance on technology
12. “But they all say the same things and nobody
says anything different from anyone else.”
______________________
13. “Don’t
step on the toes of the dog lovers … Baptists … Texans …. The bigger your market,
Montag, the less you handle controversy! …. Magazines became a nice blend of
vanilla tapioca.”
______________________
14. “He
made more soft sounds. He stumbled
toward the bed and shoved the book clumsily under the cold pillow. He fell into the bed and his wife cried out
started. He lay far across the room from
here, on a winter island separated by an empty sea.”
______________________
15. “We’ve
got to start somewhere here, figuring out why we’re in such a mess, you and the
medicine nights, and the car, and me and my work. We’re heading right for the cliff,
Millie. God, I don’t want to go
over. This isn’t going to be easy. We haven’t got anything to go on, but maybe
we can piece it together and figure it and help each other…And if there is something
here, just one little thing out of a whole mess of things, maybe we can pass it
on to someone else.” ______________________
16.
“Mildred watched the toast delivered to her plate. She had both ears plugged
with electronic bees that were humming the hour away…. She was an expert at lip
reading from ten years of apprenticeship at Seashell ear thimbles.”
______________________
Allusions – Short Answer
Choose 3
of the following allusions to explain in complete sentences.
phoenix salamander Clarisse python river Faber Granger Fahrenheit 451 Book
of Job Stoneman
and Black
Short Answer – Choose 5 to answer in complete sentences.
1.
Compare/contrast
Beatty and Faber.
2.
If
Montag hadn’t cooked Beatty, how might the book have ended?
3.
What
was the turning point for Montag? What finally drove him to abandoning his job,
killing his boss, and going on the run?
4.
Why
do you think Mildred pulled the fire alarm in their house?
5.
After
working on Mildred, the machine operator tells Montag that “we get these cases
nine or ten a night.” What does this reveal about their society? Why do you
think that is?
6.
When
the enemy nukes the city, Montag doesn’t seem upset even though everyone he
knew was just atomized. Why do you think Montag didn’t care? What does
the destruction of the city represent?
7.
Explain
why Montag decides to read “Dover
Beach
8.
Describe
three technological tools from the book. What is their function (what do they
do) and what is their greater purpose in society (what do they help achieve)?
9.
Why
do you think the last section is entitled, “Burning Bright”? Give at least
three ideas.
Essay
1. Montag
turns to books to rescue him; instead they help demolish his life – he loses
his wife, job and home; he kills a man and is forced to run for his life. Does he gain any benefits from books? If so,
what are they?
2.
Granger, spokesperson for the group on the railroad tracks, tells Montag,
“Right now we have a horrible job; we’re waiting for the war to begin and, as
quickly, end…When the war’s over, perhaps we can be of some use in the world.”
Based on what you’ve read of the world these men live in, do you believe that
the books they carry inside themselves will make a difference? Might this
difference be positive or negative?
3. Why did
Ray Bradbury choose science fiction as the genre in which to convey his ideas?
What strong social statement is he making about the future of humanity in a
technical word? What does he feel society and its individuals must do to
prevent the destruction of the species?
Last Task: Quote Interpretation
Explain what you think the following
quote means. Apply it to Fahrenheit 451 and to our own society.
What
matters, in our age, is not just that people read for information, or for
amusement, or for whatever else the television screen and computer terminal can
alternatively provide. It is that they read for wisdom, for depth, for a
conscious acquaintance with the values and judgments of great thinkers thinking
greatly. The tragedy of illiteracy – and the even greater waste of alliteracy,
involving those who know how to read seriously but don’t – is that it abandons
the accumulated wisdom of the ages. It places fine writing in the hands of
fewer and fewer interpreters, whose translations and commentaries become
progressively oversimplified – and whose audience, increasingly unable to think
for itself, grows more and more susceptible to the manipulations of the elite.
Are
we headed, then backwards into the pre-print attitudes of the Middle Ages, when
the literate few ruled the illiterate many? Our sense of democracy should rise
in rebellion at such a notion. To avert such backsliding, the last years of
this century must be given over to two things: training people how to read, and teaching them why they should want to read … --Rushworth Kidder
A Death In the Family
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Death in the Family.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 2 Feb. 2012.
A Death in the Family opens with a young boy, Rufus, and his father, Jay, taking a trip to the movie theater together. They enjoy this time spent just between the two of them. On the way home, they stop by a pub so Jay can get a drink. After they return home, Rufus hears his father go out again.
Much later that night, at almost three in the morning, the telephone rings. It is Ralph, Jay's alcoholic brother. Ralph tells Jay that he had better come over soon because their father, Grampa Follet, has had another heart attack. Jay feels that the clearly drunk Ralph may be exaggerating. Nonetheless, Jay feels that he cannot afford to risk it, so he sets off in the Ford early in the morning. After crossing a nearby river on the ferry, he feels that he is driving into his rural "home country."After Jay leaves, his wife, Mary, has trouble sleeping. She keeps thinking about her basic dislike of Jay's father, and then she begins praying for God to give her strength to like the old man. She also asks God to help Jay become a religious man, as religion is something she and her husband feel differently about. She feels religion is a rift between them in their marriage.
In the morning, Mary tells the children that Ja
y has gone to see Grampa and that he will be back by nightfall. Meanwhile, Jay has arrived at the farm and is now angry that he made the trip: sure enough, Ralph greatly exaggerated their father's condition. The night before, Ralph kept sneaking out of his father's sickroom to take drinks; he felt he was a failure as a man. He realized that nobody respects him because he is a weak person.
Hannah, Rufus's great-aunt, calls Mary and asks her if she can take Rufus shopping. After Rufus gets home from school, he goes over to his grandmother's house to meet Hannah. The two go shopping together, and the highlight of the trip for Rufus is when Hannah buys him a cap that he desperately wants.
At ten o'clock in the evening of the day that Jay is supposed to return home, Mary receives a phone call from a man who tells her that Jay has been in an accident and that she should send over a male member of the family. Mary immediately calls her brother, Andrew, and he and a family friend named Walter Starr drive out together. Before they leave, they drop off Aunt Hannah so that she can wait with Mary. The two women wait, tense and worried. Mary grows more and more alarmed as time passes.
Joel and Catherine, Mary's parents, are also waiting in their own house. Joel calls Mary to see if she has heard any news, but she has not. Joel is trying to read a magazine to distract him from thinking about what might have happened to Jay, and Catherine is trying to do embroidery.
Then Andrew returns to Mary's house. Mary guesses right away that Jay is dead, and Andrew confirms this fact. Shortly thereafter, Joel and Catherine arrive with Walter, who had gone directly to their house to get them. Joel takes Mary aside and gives her the best advice he can on how to cope with the death. He tells her to stay strong, and that he has confidence in her.
Joel and Mary return to the living room, where Hannah, Catherine, and Andrew are all assembled. Andrew tells them all what happened. He says that a cotter pin fell out of the steering mechanism of Jay's car, and that when he hit a rock in the road he lost control. His head was thrown forward onto the steering wheel, causing a concussion that was instantly fatal and likely painless. He then was thrown clear of the car. They all drink some whiskey.
Andrew calls Ralph to alert Jay's side of the family about the death. Ralph feels terrible, and offers to be the undertaker, but Mary has already brought Jay to a different undertaker. It occurs to Mary that Jay may have been drunk when he crashed the car; she immediately tells herself, however, that Andrew would have told her if that was even a possibility, and she puts the thought out of her head.
Suddenly, Hannah, Mary, Andrew, and Catherine all sense a presence in the room. Mary says that it is Jay. When the presence returns, she feels that it is in the children's room, and she goes upstairs to pray. Even Andrew, who is very skeptical about religion and all things supernatural, is shaken because he is sure he has sensed something. Mary comes downstairs again and asks Hannah to spend the night with her, which the older woman does.
When Rufus wakes up the next morning, the first thing he wants to do is to show his father his new cap. He runs into his parents' room, and his mother tells him to go get little Catherine, his sister, because there is something she has to tell both of them. She tells them that their father has died and that they will never be able to see him again. The children are upset, but do not fully understand the import of the news. At breakfast, Hannah tells them the details of the death and says they can ask her questions about anything.
That day, Rufus wanders around the house aimlessly, unsure of what to do with himself. Even though Hannah tells him to stay in the house, he sneaks out and goes to the sidewalk where kids walk to school. A bunch of them gather around him, and he tells them that his father is dead. One little boy relates the story as he read it in the local newspaper, adding gory details. Another boy says that his father said that Jay was drunk. Then the school bell rings, the boys run off, and Rufus goes home. He gets in an argument with little Catherine over her coloring book, and Aunt Hannah chastises him.
The next day, Hannah washes and dresses Rufus and little Catherine for the funeral. A priest named Father Jackson comes to the house and, after meanly reprimanding the children for staring at him, goes into Mary's room and prays with her and Hannah. The children eavesdrop at the door until Walter Starr arrives. He keeps them company in the sitting room until their mother and aunt emerge with Father Jackson.
The children go to the wake, which is held at their grandparents' house, and see their father for the last time. Back at home, little Catherine feels lonely. She looks for her mother and hides under a bed until Mary finds her. Andrew takes Rufus for a walk. He tells Rufus about a beautiful butterfly that he saw land on their father's coffin during the burial service. The story makes Rufus feel better about not being present at the funeral. Then Andrew gets angry with Father Jackson and tells Rufus that the priest refused to read the full burial service because Jay had never been baptized. As Rufus and Andrew walk home in silence, Rufus wonders if, since Andrew hates religion, he also hates the religious Mary and Hannah.
The Odyssey
Overview
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Odyssey.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 1 Feb. 2012.
T en years have passed since the fall of Troy, and the Greek hero Odysseus still has not returned to his kingdom in Ithaca. A large and rowdy mob of suitors who have overrun Odysseus’s palace and pillaged his land continue to court his wife, Penelope. She has remained faithful to Odysseus. Prince Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, wants desperately to throw them out but does not have the confidence or experience to fight them. One of the suitors, Antinous, plans to assassinate the young prince, eliminating the only opposition to their dominion over the palace.
Unknown to the suitors, Odysseus is still alive. The beautiful nymph Calypso, possessed by love for him, has imprisoned him on her island, Ogygia. He longs to return to his wife and son, but he has no ship or crew to help him escape. While the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus debate Odysseus’s future, Athena, Odysseus’s strongest supporter among the gods, resolves to help Telemachus. Disguised as a friend of the prince’s grandfather, Laertes, she convinces the prince to call a meeting of the assembly at which he reproaches the suitors. Athena also prepares him for a great journey to Pylos and Sparta, where the kings Nestor and Menelaus, Odysseus’s companions during the war, inform him that Odysseus is alive and trapped on Calypso’s island. Telemachus makes plans to return home, while, back in Ithaca, Antinous and the other suitors prepare an ambush to kill him when he reaches port.
On Mount Olympus, Zeus sends Hermes to rescue Odysseus from Calypso. Hermes persuades Calypso to let Odysseus build a ship and leave. The homesick hero sets sail, but when Poseidon, god of the sea, finds him sailing home, he sends a storm to wreck Odysseus’s ship. Poseidon has harbored a bitter grudge against Odysseus since the hero blinded his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, earlier in his travels. Athena intervenes to save Odysseus from Poseidon’s wrath, and the beleaguered king lands at Scheria, home of the Phaeacians. Nausicaa, the Phaeacian princess, shows him to the royal palace, and Odysseus receives a warm welcome from the king and queen. When he identifies himself as Odysseus, his hosts, who have heard of his exploits at Troy, are stunned. They promise to give him safe passage to Ithaca, but first they beg to hear the story of his adventures.
Odysseus spends the night describing the fantastic chain of events leading up to his arrival on Calypso’s island. He recounts his trip to the Land of the Lotus Eaters, his battle with Polyphemus the Cyclops, his love affair with the witch-goddess Circe, his temptation by the deadly Sirens, his journey into Hades to consult the prophet Tiresias, and his fight with the sea monster Scylla. When he finishes his story, the Phaeacians return Odysseus to Ithaca, where he seeks out the hut of his faithful swineherd, Eumaeus. Though Athena has disguised Odysseus as a beggar, Eumaeus warmly receives and nourishes him in the hut. He soon encounters Telemachus, who has returned from Pylos and Sparta despite the suitors’ ambush, and reveals to him his true identity. Odysseus and Telemachus devise a plan to massacre the suitors and regain control of Ithaca.
When Odysseus arrives at the palace the next day, still disguised as a beggar, he endures abuse and insults from the suitors. The only person who recognizes him is his old nurse, Eurycleia, but she swears not to disclose his secret. Penelope takes an interest in this strange beggar, suspecting that he might be her long-lost husband. Quite crafty herself, Penelope organizes an archery contest the following day and promises to marry any man who can string Odysseus’s great bow and fire an arrow through a row of twelve axes—a feat that only Odysseus has ever been able to accomplish. At the contest, each suitor tries to string the bow and fails. Odysseus steps up to the bow and, with little effort, fires an arrow through all twelve axes. He then turns the bow on the suitors. He and Telemachus, assisted by a few faithful servants, kill every last suitor.
Odysseus reveals himself to the entire palace and reunites with his loving Penelope. He travels to the outskirts of Ithaca to see his aging father, Laertes. They come under attack from the vengeful family members of the dead suitors, but Laertes, reinvigorated by his son’s return, successfully kills Antinous’s father and puts a stop to the attack. Zeus dispatches Athena to restore peace. With his power secure and his family reunited, Odysseus’s long ordeal comes to an end.
Read an in-depth analysis of Odysseus.
Telemachus - Odysseus’s son. An infant when Odysseus left for Troy, Telemachus is about twenty at the beginning of the story. He is a natural obstacle to the suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite his courage and good heart, he initially lacks the poise and confidence to oppose them. His maturation, especially during his trip to Pylos and Sparta in Books 3 and 4, provides a subplot to the epic. Athena often assists him. Read an in-depth analysis of Telemachus.
Character Analysis
Odysseus - The protagonist of the Odyssey. Odysseus fought among the other Greek heroes at Troy and now struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca. Odysseus is the husband of Queen Penelope and the father of Prince Telemachus. Though a strong and courageous warrior, he is most renowned for his cunning. He is a favorite of the goddess Athena, who often sends him divine aid, but a bitter enemy of Poseidon, who frustrates his journey at every turn. Read an in-depth analysis of Odysseus.
Telemachus - Odysseus’s son. An infant when Odysseus left for Troy, Telemachus is about twenty at the beginning of the story. He is a natural obstacle to the suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite his courage and good heart, he initially lacks the poise and confidence to oppose them. His maturation, especially during his trip to Pylos and Sparta in Books 3 and 4, provides a subplot to the epic. Athena often assists him. Read an in-depth analysis of Telemachus.
Penelope - Wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus. Penelope spends her days in the palace pining for the husband who left for Troy twenty years earlier and never returned. Homer portrays her as sometimes flighty and excitable but also clever and steadfastly true to her husband. Read an in-depth analysis of Penelope.
Athena - Daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom, purposeful battle, and the womanly arts. Athena assists Odysseus and Telemachus with divine powers throughout the epic, and she speaks up for them in the councils of the gods on Mount Olympus. She often appears in disguise as Mentor, an old friend of Odysseus. Read an in-depth analysis of Athena.
Poseidon - God of the sea. As the suitors are Odysseus’s mortal antagonists, Poseidon is his divine antagonist. He despises Odysseus for blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and constantly hampers his journey home. Ironically, Poseidon is the patron of the seafaring Phaeacians, who ultimately help to return Odysseus to Ithaca.
Zeus - King of gods and men, who mediates the disputes of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is occasionally depicted as weighing men’s fates in his scales. He sometimes helps Odysseus or permits Athena to do the same.
Antinous - The most arrogant of Penelope’s suitors. Antinous leads the campaign to have Telemachus killed. Unlike the other suitors, he is never portrayed sympathetically, and he is the first to die when Odysseus returns.
Eurymachus - A manipulative, deceitful suitor. Eurymachus’s charisma and duplicity allow him to exert some influence over the other suitors.
Amphinomus - Among the dozens of suitors, the only decent man seeking Penelope’s hand in marriage. Amphinomus sometimes speaks up for Odysseus and Telemachus, but he is killed like the rest of the suitors in the final fight.
Eumaeus - The loyal shepherd who, along with the cowherd Philoetius, helps Odysseus reclaim his throne after his return to Ithaca. Even though he does not know that the vagabond who appears at his hut is Odysseus, Eumaeus gives the man food and shelter.
Eurycleia - The aged and loyal servant who nursed Odysseus and Telemachus when they were babies. Eurycleia is well informed about palace intrigues and serves as confidante to her masters. She keeps Telemachus’s journey secret from Penelope, and she later keeps Odysseus’s identity a secret after she recognizes a scar on his leg.
Melanthius - The brother of Melantho. Melanthius is a treacherous and opportunistic goatherd who supports the suitors, especially Eurymachus, and abuses the beggar who appears in Odysseus’s palace, not realizing that the man is Odysseus himself.
Melantho - Sister of Melanthius and maidservant in Odysseus’s palace. Like her brother, Melantho abuses the beggar in the palace, not knowing that the man is Odysseus. She is having an affair with Eurymachus.
Calypso - The beautiful nymph who falls in love with Odysseus when he lands on her island-home of Ogygia. Calypso holds him prisoner there for seven years until Hermes, the messenger god, persuades her to let him go.
Polyphemus - One of the Cyclopes (uncivilized one-eyed giants) whose island Odysseus comes to soon after leaving Troy. Polyphemus imprisons Odysseus and his crew and tries to eat them, but Odysseus blinds him through a clever ruse and manages to escape. In doing so, however, Odysseus angers Polyphemus’s father, Poseidon.
Circe - The beautiful witch-goddess who transforms Odysseus’s crew into swine when he lands on her island. With Hermes’ help, Odysseus resists Circe’s powers and then becomes her lover, living in luxury at her side for a year.
Laertes - Odysseus’s aging father, who resides on a farm in Ithaca. In despair and physical decline, Laertes regains his spirit when Odysseus returns and eventually kills Antinous’s father.
Tiresias - A Theban prophet who inhabits the underworld. Tiresias meets Odysseus when Odysseus journeys to the underworld in Book 11. He shows Odysseus how to get back to Ithaca and allows Odysseus to communicate with the other souls in Hades.
Nestor - King of Pylos and a former warrior in the Trojan War. Like Odysseus, Nestor is known as a clever speaker. Telemachus visits him in Book 3 to ask about his father, but Nestor knows little of Odysseus’s whereabouts.
Menelaus - King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen, he helped lead the Greeks in the Trojan War. He offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find Odysseus when Telemachus visits him in Book 4.
Helen - Wife of Menelaus and queen of Sparta. Helen’s abduction from Sparta by the Trojans sparked the Trojan War. Her beauty is without parallel, but she is criticized for giving in to her Trojan captors and thereby costing many Greek men their lives. She offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find his father.
Agamemnon - Former king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus, and commander of the Achaean forces at Troy. Odysseus encounters Agamemnon’s spirit in Hades. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, upon his return from the war. He was later avenged by his son Orestes. Their story is constantly repeated in the Odyssey to offer an inverted image of the fortunes of Odysseus and Telemachus.
Nausicaa - The beautiful daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. Nausicaa discovers Odysseus on the beach at Scheria and, out of budding affection for him, ensures his warm reception at her parents’ palace.
Alcinous - King of the Phaeacians, who offers Odysseus hospitality in his island kingdom of Scheria. Alcinous hears the story of Odysseus’s wanderings and provides him with safe passage back to Ithaca.
Arete - Queen of the Phaeacians, wife of Alcinous, and mother of Nausicaa. Arete is intelligent and influential. Nausicaa tells Odysseus to make his appeal for assistance to Arete
Themes of the Odyssey
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Power of Cunning over Strength
If the Iliad is about strength, the Odyssey is about cunning, a difference that becomes apparent in the very first lines of the epics. Whereas the Iliad tells the story of the rage of Achilles, the strongest hero in the Greek army, the Odyssey focuses on a “man of twists and turns”(1.1). Odysseus does have extraordinary strength, as he demonstrates in Book 21 by being the only man who can string the bow. But he relies much more on mind than muscle, a tendency that his encounters showcase. He knows that he cannot overpower Polyphemus, for example, and that, even if he were able to do so, he wouldn’t be able to budge the boulder from the door. He thus schemes around his disadvantage in strength by exploiting Po1yphemus’s stupidity. Though he does use violence to put out Polyphemus’s single eye, this display of strength is part of a larger plan to deceive the brute.Similarly, Odysseus knows that he is no match for the host of strapping young suitors in his palace, so he makes the most of his other strength—his wits. Step by step, through disguises and deceptions, he arranges a situation in which he alone is armed and the suitors are locked in a room with him. With this setup, Achilles’ superb talents as a warrior would enable him to accomplish what Odysseus does, but only Odysseus’s strategic planning can bring about such a sure victory. Some of the tests in Odysseus’s long, wandering ordeal seem to mock reliance on strength alone. No one can resist the Sirens’ song, for example, but Odysseus gets an earful of the lovely melody by having his crew tie him up. Scylla and Charybdis cannot be beaten, but Odysseus can minimize his losses with prudent decision-making and careful navigation. Odysseus’s encounter with Achilles in the underworld is a reminder: Achilles won great kleos, or glory, during his life, but that life was brief and ended violently. Odysseus, on the other hand, by virtue of his wits, will live to a ripe old age and is destined to die in peace.
The Pitfalls of Temptation
The initial act that frustrated so many Achaeans’ homecoming was the work of an Achaean himself: Ajax (the “Lesser” Ajax, a relatively unimportant figure not to be confused with the “Greater” Ajax, whom Odysseus meets in Hades) raped the Trojan priestess Cassandra in a temple while the Greeks were plundering the fallen city. That act of impulse, impiety, and stupidity brought the wrath of Athena upon the Achaean fleet and set in motion the chain of events that turned Odysseus’s homecoming into a long nightmare. It is fit that the Odyssey is motivated by such an event, for many of the pitfalls that Odysseus and his men face are likewise obstacles that arise out of mortal weakness and the inability to control it. The submission to temptation or recklessness either angers the gods or distracts Odysseus and the members of his crew from their journey: they yield to hunger and slaughter the Sun’s flocks, and they eat the fruit of the lotus and forget about their homes.Even Odysseus’s hunger for kleos is a kind of temptation. He submits to it when he reveals his name to Polyphemus, bringing Poseidon’s wrath upon him and his men. In the case of the Sirens, the theme is revisited simply for its own interest. With their ears plugged, the crew members sail safely by the Sirens’ island, while Odysseus, longing to hear the Sirens’sweet song, is saved from folly only by his foresighted command to his crew to keep him bound to the ship’s mast. Homer is fascinated with depicting his protagonist tormented by temptation: in general, Odysseus and his men want very desperately to complete their nostos, or homecoming, but this desire is constantly at odds with the other pleasures that the world offers.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Storytelling
Storytelling in the Odyssey, in addition to delivering the plot to the audience, situates the epic in its proper cultural context. The Odyssey seems very conscious of its predecessor, the Iliad: Odysseus’s wanderings would never have taken place had he not left for Troy; and the Odyssey would make little sense without the Iliad and the knowledge that so many other Greek heroes had to make nostoi, or homeward journeys, of their own. Homer constantly evokes the history of the Odyssey through the stories that his characters tell. Menelaus and Nestor both narrate to Telemachus their wanderings from Troy. Even Helen adds some anecdotes about Odysseus’s cunning during the Trojan War. Phemius, a court minstrel in Ithaca, and Demodocus, a Phaeacian bard, sing of the exploits of the Greek heroes at Troy. In the underworld, Agamemnon tells the story of his murder, while Ajax’s evasion prompts the story of his quarrel with Odysseus. These stories, however, don’t just provide colorful personal histories. Most call out to other stories in Greek mythology, elevating the Odyssey by reminding its audience of the epic’s rich, mythic tradition.Disguises
The gods of Greek literature often assume alternate forms to commune with humans. In the Odyssey, Athena appears on earth disguised as everything from a little girl to Odysseus’s friend Mentor to Telemachus. Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea whom Menelaus describes in Book 4, can assume any form, even water and fire, to escape capture. Circe, on the other hand, uses her powers to change others, turning an entire contingent of Odysseus’s crew into pigs with a tap of her wand.From the first line of the epic, Homer explains that his story is about a “man of twists and turns” (1.1). Quick, clever, and calculating, Odysseus is a natural master of disguise, and the plot of the epic often turns on his deception. By withholding his true identity from the Cyclops and using the alias “Nobody,” for example, Odysseus is able to save himself and his crew. But by revealing his name at the end of this episode, Odysseus ends up being dogged by the god Poseidon. His beggar disguise allows him to infiltrate his palace and set up the final confrontation with the suitors. It also allows Homer to distinguish those who truly love Odysseus—characters like Eurycleia, Penelope, and even his dog, Argos, begin to recognize their beloved king even before he sheds his disguise.
Seductresses
Women are very important figures in the Odyssey, and one of the most prominent roles they fulfill is that of seductress. Circe and Calypso are the most obvious examples of women whose love becomes an obstacle to Odysseus’s return. Homer presents many other women whose irresistible allure threatens to lead men astray. The Sirens enchant Odysseus with their lovely song, and even Penelope, despite all of her contempt for the suitors, seems to be leading them on at times. She uses her feminine wiles to conceal her ruse of undoing, every night, her day’s work on the burial shroud, and even gets the suitors to give her gifts, claiming that she will marry the one who gives her the nicest things. While these women do gain a certain amount of power through their sexual charms, they are ultimately all subject to divine whim, forced to wait and pine for love when it is absent.Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Food
Although throwing a feast for a guest is a common part of hospitality, hunger and the consumption of food often have negative associations in the Odyssey. They represent lack of discipline or submission to temptation, as when Odysseus tarries in the cave of the Cyclops, when his men slaughter the Sun’s flocks, or when they eat the fruit of the lotus. The suitors, moreover, are constantly eating. Whenever Telemachus and Penelope complain about their uninvited guests, they mention how the suitors slaughter the palace’s livestock. Odysseus kills the suitors just as they are starting their dinner, and Homer graphically describes them falling over tables and spilling their food. In almost all cases, the monsters of the Odyssey owe their monstrosity at least in part to their diets or the way that they eat. Scylla swallows six of Odysseus’s men, one for each head. The Cyclops eats humans, but not sheep apparently, and is gluttonous nonetheless: when he gets drunk, he vomits up wine mixed with pieces of human flesh. The Laestrygonians seem like nice people—until their queen, who is described as “huge as a mountain crag,” tries to eat Odysseus and his men (10.124). In these cases, excessive eating represents not just lack of self-control, but also the total absence of humanity and civility.The Wedding Bed
The wedding bed in Book 23 symbolizes the constancy of Penelope and Odysseus’s marriage. Only a single maidservant has ever seen the bed, and it is where the happy couple spends its first night in each other’s arms since Odysseus’s departure for Troy twenty years earlier. The symbolism is heightened by the trick that Penelope uses to test Odysseus, which revolves around the immovability of their bed—a metaphor for the unshakable foundation of their love.
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