The Most Dangerous Game vs. The Odyssey

We see the desire and danger resulting in drama in this story, because General Zaroff loves to hunt. He has started to hunt people because he kills animals easily. Once Rainsford comes onto the island, the general decided that he was a worthy opponent and tried to hunt him. This is dangerous because Rainsford could be killed. This turns into drama when Rainsford puts out traps and reveals more of his sly side. He ended up tricking and killing the general in the end.
This is shown in the Odyssey a lot in the parts involving the suitors. The desire is shown because the suitors all wish that Penelope could marry them. This is dangerous, because even though he does not, Telemachus could hurt them to try and make them leave. This all results in drama, because even though almost nobody knows, Odysseus was still alive. He came back and killed all of the suitors.

1. I think that at least some background knowledge is needed in both The Odyssey and The Most Dangerous Game. It helped me understand the story better to know that Rainsford was a hunter in The Most Dangerous Game. It helped to know that he was good at it, because then it was more suspenseful when General Zaroff tried to hunt him down. In The Odyssey, I needed to know that Odysseus had been gone from home for more than twenty years. It helped me sympathize with him and Penelope better. I think the background knowledge was needed more in The Odyssey, because it seemed like the whole book began in the middle of a story. When I knew what had happened before, I understood it a lot better.

2. The conflict in The Most Dangerous Game was external, because the main character (Rainsford) was being hunted by the general. The main conflict in The Odyssey was internal, because Odysseus was sad and wanted badly to get home. The gods did interfere with that, but the conflict was mostly internal.

3. In The Most Dangerous Game, Rainsford came on this trip on a boat to hunt in the rainforest. That is what it seems like to me. His obstacles were that he fell off his boat and it left, he found an island but then was hunted by the man on it, and ended up having to kill the man on the island. In The Odyssey, Odysseus wanted to get home. He had the obstacles of being held captive by Calypso, having the gods against him, and having the tendency to talk a lot. Those were the main ones I saw. I think that in both books, the obstacles kept the people from getting home.

4. In The Most Dangerous Game, there were not any flashbacks that I read about. In The Odyssey, Odysseus flashed back to the time of his entire journey, before he had been captured by Calypso (which is where the book starts).

5. In The Most Dangerous Game, the external conflict is resolved when Rainsford won the General's game and shoved him out the window to the dogs. In The Odyssey, the internal conflict is resolved after Odysseus finds his way home, reveals himself, and kills the suitors. After that, he talks with Penelope all night and they were happy.

The Odyssey- Books 18-24

     Well, that was unexpected. The story, up until this point, has been repetitive and drawn out. I was pleasantly surprised when I read this week, because the story really did reach a higher climax than I thought it would. It was very interesting, and it kept me reading a lot better than it did before. The steps of the Hero's Journey stood out very well. The last battle was very intriguing, because Minerva created a "fortunately, unfortunately" plot structure in a few of the last books, which kept it going. I could not tell if Ulysses was going to win or not, because at one point it seemed like Minerva got really upset with him. I thought she would stop protecting him, but she did not.
   
     I was still frustrated that some parts of the story were repetitive. I heard some things about four times from different people, even though Homer had already explained them. I realize that this was because it was a type of poem, but it did not seem like a poem for most of the story. I was also a bit frustrated when Minerva would make things worse after they had just gotten a little better, and I had mixed feelings about it. It seemed to make the story just keep going as I mentioned earlier, but it also was not a good thing. There were many times when I got a little bit fed up with Ulysses because he would not show himself to Penelope, and insisted on keeping himself disguised. I thought that Homer should have made the story more romantic by letting Ulysses show himself to Penelope before anyone else, because she was grieving so much. I think that that was not fair.

     Over all, I was satisfied with the ending. It seemed to wrap things up. The suitors are gone, and Odysseus' journey has come to an end. He is back home, where he wanted to be.