Here is the worksheet we used for our class activity yesterday. You may use this material to help you generate arguments for your essay – but your essay must have an original argument! That means, if your essay answers one of the questions below, you must come up with your own claims, evidence and analysis.
In your group, select one of the episodes below and make an argument about it. You may choose to consider one of the themes that I have suggested below, or propose an original interpretation. You will find a worksheet on the next page to help organize your argument.
Odysseus and the cyclops, p.430-437
When Odysseus and his crew are trapped in Polyphemus’s cave, they become at the same time both his guests and his dinner.
What does this episode have to do with the hospitality rituals we have been discussing?
What makes Polyphemus such a “wild savage” in comparison with Odysseus? Or are Odysseus and Polyphemus not really so very different?
The bag of Aeolus, p.440
After Odysseus’s crew opens the bag of the winds, Aeolus refuses to help Odysseus again. “Begone! You are cursed by heaven” he says (440). At the beginning of The Odyssey, however, Zeus complains, “Mortals! They are always blaming the gods for their troubles” (333).
Which is it? Are Odysseus and his men cursed by heaven, or do they bring their troubles on themselves?
Circe’s island, p.443-449
Circe transforms men into animals, until Odysseus outwits and overpowers her. Then she becomes gentle, and she cares for him and his men for a whole year. Homer often depicts the power dynamics in relationships between men and women (married or not).
What is Homer’s perspective on love? Marriage? Fidelity?
The descent into the Underworld, p.451-467
Why does Odysseus go down to Hades? Does he really need to hear the prophecy of Tiresias? Why must he face the ghosts of his mother, his dead crew-member Elpenor, his friends Agamemnon and Achilles?
Why does he want to talk with them?
Claims
What argument are putting forward about the episode? What point are you trying to make? What do you believe is true about it? Your claims are your assertions.
Evidence
Write the full quotation below, just as you would in an essay.
1.
Analysis: How does this quotation support your position?
- Evidence:
Analysis: How does this quotation support your position?
Final Claims
How does the evidence you have introduced develop, refine, or explain the claims you made?
Now put it all together. Rather than just exactly copying what you have written above, join the ideas together by means of complete sentences. Use transition words (eg. “but,” “nevertheless,” “however,” “yet,” et cetera). Your final paragraph should appear to flow smoothly; it should NOT read like unconnected sentences stitched together, Frankenstein-style.