Cody Belthius

May 12, 2017

Period 2

Mrs. Parrott/ Mulvey

Journey

Hope is like a sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadows of our burden

behind us, by Samuel Smiles. This states that as we move on we find new things that we love

and leave the things that hurt us the most. Journeys are to make people a better person and find

themselves inside through obstacles that are along the way. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, by

Homer, Odysseus went to go battle in a war called The Trojan War and after the battle he

couldnt get home, but along the 20 years journey he had many obstacle and finally made it

home to his wife Penelope. In,The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel a person named Cumming

heard that a car bomb went off and a interpreter named Izzy had one of his daughters hurt, but

Cumming could only help the one who was born in America. When Izzy arrived at the base it

was not the right daughter, but at that moment it didnt matter who it was, he just wanted to help

her. The character Odysseus in The Odyssey changed by being at first a cocky person to the

gods, to a person who started respecting them when he wanted to get home to his wife. Then the

character Cumming in The Good Soldiers changed from being loyal to his country by

following the rules to later not even acknowledging the rules when he helped the girl at that

moment.

In the Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus changes from being a cocky person to being more

respectful of the gods when he wanted to find his way home. An example is when after he takes
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out polyphemus's eye, son of poseidon, and tells his name, Odysseus, raider of cities, tool your

eye: Laertes son, whose homes on Ithaca! (Homer 363- 364). This shows that Odysseus is not

scared of what says to the cyclops, so he tells him who had defeated him and took him down.

This matters because Polyphemus is the son of poseidon and to continue on their journey they

have to cross water, so Odysseus was a cocky person to tell a son of a god. Then later when he

need directions to his home on Ithaca he went to the land of the dead and said, I swore to

sacrifice a black lamb, handsomest of all our flock, (Homer 6). This shows that Odysseus is

harming a lamb by giving it to the dead for the directions to Ithaca. This matters because it is

showing that he is being respectful by giving the best lamb they have with them to the

underworld god, Hades. As Odysseus was not respectful in the beginning to the ones with more

power, Cumming was not loyal in the end to the people that have more power over them.

Then in, The Good Soldier, by David Finkel, Cumming was following the rules by

telling Izzy he could only help his american daughter, but in the end he loss his loyalty for the

moment because it wasnt the American daughter who was injured, it was the other one. An

example of him showing loyalty is,He called again. The connection kept breaking up. Is your

daughter from the United States with you right now?... Is she hurt?... Which daughter is hurt?...

( Finkel 59-61). This states that Cumming is only worried for the daughter that was born in the

United States and not the one born in Baghdad. This is important because at this point he is loyal

to the United States and is following the rules that have been set for everyone. Then later he
finds out it was the Baghdad daughter who was injured and the text states, At the moment,

anyways, no one seemed concerned one way or another: not the doctor, not the family, and not

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Cumming (Finkel 135-136). This shows that when they helped the daughter from Baghdad it

didnt even matter that she wasnt from the United States, they just wanted to help someone who

was injured. This matters because it is showing that they have lost the loyalty they

had to the United States by disregarding the rule they have to follow at that moment. Cumming

was only helping the daughter who was not from the United States because he wanted to save

someones life.

In these two texts, both Odysseus and Cumming have changed in a way from what they

have previously been following. In, The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus was a cocky person

and not afraid to tell people, but when he need to find his way home he started respecting the

gods. Then in, The Good Soldier, by David Finkel a guy named Cumming kept asking an

interpreter named Izzy if the daughter from the United states was injured because the rule states

they only help the ones who were born in America, but later he stopped following that rule

because the one injured was from Baghdad and he wanted to help her. Then, through my

freshman year I had a journey and at first I was somewhat shy and kept to myself, but as my

journey through freshman year came to a close I became more opened with people around me. In

the end, journey have the power to change people in ways that they start to think differently from

what they previously believed, through obstacles or hardships they have faced.