— Anuradha Rampersaud
In my opinion, a great work has several meanings. For a story to be a great work it should connect readers to the characters and at the same time inspire them. Additionally, it should keep the reader’s attention hooked, and the themes and messages that the story is conveying is of some importance to the reader regardless of the place it occurred. A level of personal connection should be formed and in my mind, great literature delves into the personal lives of the characters and reveals their stories on every level to the highest capacity.
“The Odyssey” was able to connect me in some of the stories only. I was eager to find out what was going to happen upon Odysseus’s return to deal with the suitors and his reconnection with his beautiful wife Penelope, and because of this, I kept reading the book. The in-depth description of how the suitors and slave girls were killed really grasped my undivided attention. Personally, I felt like I was in the story watching the body parts of the suitors scattered all over the food table and on the floor and it was very captivating to my eyes. Odysseus’s reconnection with Penelope was beautiful to me and it was everything I hoped for. I was very satisfied with that part, because I actually wanted them to live out their lives together. So, for these specific parts I felt like the Odyssey was a great work. Unfortunately, this is as far I got with connecting with this book on a great work level. I felt like for the other parts I was lost reading the stories, and that is, because the story was never really focusing on one person at a time, and at some points it got very confusing for me, so I was reading one paragraph more than once just to have an understanding who the other characters were. Also, at some parts of the stories it got very boring, and this was specifically when Odysseus was trying to come back home and that kept delaying. And, to top it off, the ending of the Odyssey was very vague and was not satisfying to me. I mean the closing lines spoke about Zeus and Athena and her still remaining a mentor. The ending did not entice me at all. Great Work is like Game of Thrones, Lucifer, How to Get Away With Murder etc.. These shows were able to capture the audience attention at all times with the storyline, and The Odyssey failed to keep me entertained.
