English I students had a Socratic Seminar on the question of whether or not Odysseus is a hero. We began with a quick-write so students could have some initial ideas. I wrote from both perspectives:

Odysseus Is Not A Hero

In the modern world, a hero is almost always synonymous with sacrifice. The people we view as heroes are the people who give of themselves selflessly without regard to their own safety. A prime example of such a hero would be the firefighters on 9/11 who went into the World Trade Center and stayed after the first tower had fallen. There were some twenty to thirty minutes between the two towers falling, and the “sensible” thing for someone to do would be to get out of the other tower as quickly as possible, to put oneself first and escape. But the firefighters continued up higher, knowing that they might die as those who’d died in the first tower had perished. They gave their lives in an effort to save others.

If heroism is based on self-sacrifice, then Odysseus is most certainly not a hero. He seems to think his men are there to make sacrifices for him. He rarely puts himself on the line, and often his actions actually put his men at risk sometimes. When they are escaping from the cyclops, he arrogantly reveals his real name to Polyphemus, which leads the cyclops to ask his father Posiden to curse Odysseus and his men. Had Odysseus kept his mouth shut, that would not have happened. But instead, he had to boast because he puts himself at the center of the world. Another example would be with Calypso. He ends up staying with her for seven years, and the whole time, he is unfaithful to his wife. The only reason he decides to go back, it seems, is because “the nymph had ceased to please.” He was bored, in short, and decided it was time to head back to his wife. A truly self-sacrificial hero would have put his wife’s concerns ahead of his: she’d already been waiting for him for years. She didn’t know if he was dead or alive. Instead of thinking of her concerns, Odysseus simply started a new relationship with Calypso.

Odysseus Is a Hero

A hero faces danger calmly and with conviction. This is not to say that a hero is never frightened of the danger she faces: she might indeed feel fear to one degree or another, but she goes through with it nonetheless.

Using this as a definition, we can conclude that Odysseus is a hero. He faces many challenges and life-threatening dangers, yet he never backs down, and he consistently encourages his men to follow his example. For instance, when he’s facing the cyclops, he could have given into despair and given up all attempts to escape or acted rashly and ruined everyone’s chances by killing the cyclops. However, he keeps a calm head and thinks rationally about the problem instead of simply reacting emotionally. Another example of this kind of calm courage comes when he and his men face Scilla and Charybdis. He knows that he might very well be one of the six destined to die as Scilla’s heads begin attacking his ship, but he goes ahead with the plan anyway knowing that not to do so would be to doom his men to never return home.

Afterward, we had the Socratic Seminar, which in fact changed a few people’s perspectives.

English 8 students began a new immigration unit, watching a bit of the 1960 documentary Harvest of Shame, which deals with migrant workers’ conditions in the 1960s.

Homework

• English 8: work on No Red Ink as needed.
• English I Honors: 
  • work on No Red Ink as needed;
  • complete the Odyssey (on Moodle) by tomorrow.