English 105-6 Midterm

summary (v long lol)

- Asking muse where Odysseus is - Odysseus is stuck on Calypso's island as a sex slave - Poseidon is the only god who is not with Odysseus - Poseidon is receiving and authoring in Ethiopia - Everyone else is somewhere else - Clemestra cheats on Agamenma - They have son - When the person who Clemestra cheats with kills the sons dad, the son then kills the cheater - Zeus is staying that the everyone in that situation deserves punishment and what happened to them - The mortals love to blame to gods - Athena is the guardian for Odysseus - Athena is begging to Zeus that Odysseus has been responsible and a good guy and all he wants to do is go home while the other heroes are just being "dumb?" - Zeus has decided to come together and get Odysseus home - 2 part plan ○ Get him off the island and let him go (Hermes) ○ Athena is going to Ithaca in order to put some "pep in his step" about the son of Odysseus ○ Send to Pylos and Sparta to - Athena disguised herself named Mentees - Shows up at door of Odysseus ○ Mentees is a man lol - All the suitors want to marry Penelope, Odysseus' wife - Telemachus (Odysseus' son) gives best chair to Athena - Review: Odysseus - fighting in trojan war. He has a wife Penelope and a son Telemachus. On his way home the gods are talking about Odysseus on mount Olympias. Athena wants to get Odysseus home, Zeus agrees. Telling son of OD to go to Sparta and Pylos so that he finds out more info about dad. Telemachus welcomes Athena in and gives good seat and hospitality. - Telemachus is saying that he thinks his dad is dead and he is annoyed and upset - He is going to ask who and where they are coming from to Athena - Athena makes up a story to tell him who she is - Laertes- Odysseus father - Athena said that Odysseus is still alive - Athena is trying to inspire him and saying he looks like his dad and gives him hope - Telemachus is probably late teens early 20s - Suiters- 40,50 - Mentes' saying there's no respect from the suiters for the house - Telemachus wished his dad would have died on the battlefield or dying naturally with loved ones - She's telling Telemachus he has to call a meeting in the morning with the suiters and tell them to get out and tells the mom that if she wants to marry someone else than she has to go to her own fathers house and get him to -pick someone to marry her - Telling him to go to Pylos and then Sparta - If he's alive, wait another year in Ithaca - If he hears that his dad is dead, come to Ithaca immediately and give Penelope away - After the conversation, Athena leaves, and flies away - Telemachus realizes it's a god and feels confident in getting rid of the suitors - Penelope is upset with the song because it reminds her of the song that the bard is singing bc it reminds her of Odysseus - Telemachus said shut up do your motherly things let me be the father in the house - All the suitors want the mom - Telemachus gets angry and stricter with them - Hes saying they have to leave - They are all shook that he's so confident and "bravery" - The suitors are questioning the Telemachus about the guy (Athena) - He knew it was Athena but he lied to them and said it was just some guy - He feel asleep thinking abt the journey - Telemachus' second mom (maid kind of) - The nurse puts him to bed at like 20 years old - Auricula BOOK TWO - Telemachus set sail - Telemachus gets ready in the morning and is confident - Athena cast a glaze on him - What happened, Telemachus is about to kick the suitors out, walks into assembly with spear and two dogs, all the town is at the assembly. - One of the old people asks who called the meeting - He says trouble has struck his house, and Odysseus "died", suitors are intruding - Telemachus is going off on everyone there and getting angry and is lashing out at all the people - He starts crying during the tantrum - He grabs the scepter (stick) and throws in on the ground and cry's - The main suitors is saying it's the mothers fault and saying that she has been leading them on - She is working on a blanket for Odysseus dad and she says once she is finished, she will hang with the suitor - But at night she would unravel all of her work - One of the best friends of the mom snitched on her to the suitors - Antinous - head suitor - Antinous has said we aren't gonna leave until the mother chooses who she's gonna marry - Zeus launched two eagles - Telemachus has said I cant send her away but if you insist in staying here then I am gonna ask for the helps of the Gods and Zeus sends two eagles and they start attacking each other (the eagles) - The Helethitrses is gonna predict and foreshadow what's gonna happen - He says that Odysseus is close and the suitors will die if they do not leave ○ All is working out for Odysseus - Odysseus will be unrecognized by all - Eurymachus - son and important suitors - Eurymachus says to shut up and that it won't happen and that to get away and that Odysseus is dead and its all make believe - They don't respect Telemachus and that they would kill Telemachus - They aren't scared of Telemachus - He tells the suitors the plan - Mentor is about to speak - Guy that Odysseus put in charge while he was gone - He says that he is pissed off as well with how everyone has been ass hole-ish - The suitor says shut up and even if Odysseus comes back that they would not be able to do anything - Telemachus isn't actually going on the trip (what he says) - Telemachus prays to the god who visited him last night, whoever it was. - Athene, nearby, hears his prayer and descends in the guise of Mentor. He/she tells Telemachus to prepare provisions for the journey and promises to find a ship. - When Telemachus goes home, the suitors mock him. - But Telemachus confidently tells Eurykleia to prepare provisions and to keep this whole trip on the down-low—especially from Penelope. - The maid is worried that the suitors are going to kill Telemachus when he comes back - Athene, to mix things up a bit, disguises herself as Telemachus while roaming about town and gathering up some good-hearted men to come along as crew for the ship, which she procures from the luxury shipyard run by Noëmon. - Disguised as Mentor, she tells Telemachus that his ride is ready. - Telemachus leaves immediately, taking with him a group of trusted men and of course Athene/Mentor as well, who is a very convenient travel companion. (S/he brings the best snacks and always pays for gas.) - Mentes was disguised first as Athena - Mentor is second - Main ideas; from book 1-2 its centered on Telemachus and him growing up, Athena riles him up and he is ready for an adventure. - Know the story of climestra and prince arrestres - Arrestees killed the guy who took his mom from his father - Antinoos - blanket - Eurymachus- goes in on Helethereas (profit who interpreted the eagles) BOOK 9 - Hes on an island with Alcinous - This is like a flashback - It's a present day flashback - He made it to the island with king and queen and is telling this story - Alcinous is the king of the island they are on - They are sitting around and they want to know his story - Tells him - Held on Circes island as well as Calypso - Stops on Cicones and takes their food and there women - The men were greedy and wanted to keep killing and doing stuff on the island and more men came and Odysseus lost a bunch of men - He said it was sad but he would sail until a glass and a praise was raised - A rip in his sail took him off course - 9 days ^^ - 10th day he wakes up and realizes that they reached the land of the lotus eaters (flower fruit). He asks three of the men to ask the people how they are. The men don't return and they offer the Lotus (like weed haha). Odysseus picks up the men and drags them back to the ship and is not happy with them. He ties them up to the ship and lashes them. - He sails on - Reaches the land at cyclops - The cyclops live barbarically and they don't maintain there land and its wild looking - Each house has its on rules - They pulled up on an island next from the cyclops island - And explore that island - Hes taking his men to Cyclops island - Of the 20 or 30 men, he tells more than half of them and he takes 12 of his best men to explore the cave - Polyphemus is not there - His crew wants to take the cheese and come back and load the animals onto the ship - Odysseus wants to see what Polyphemus would let them stay or give them a gift - "gain this grain HAHA" - Polyphemus is the only one can move the boulder - Shuts the door - They are trapped - He got mad at Odysseus and yelled "strangers" - Odysseus is saying who he is and everything and how "you should be nice" because that's what the gods want - He says "you must be a fool" - Since the gods don't mess with the cyclops really - Cyclops asks where his ship is - He lies and said that his boat is broken by Poseidon so that the Cyclops wont go break it - He "snatched" (lol) 2 men and killed and ate them - He then took a nap (I think) - Odysseys wanted to stab him but he didn't - they couldn't move the boulder so they didn't kill him - He ate 2 more men (total of 4) - He drove his fat sheep away - They found a huge log/tree thing and is going to stab him in the eye - He hid the club under all the poop - And they drew straws to see who would help Odysseus with the club - Hes lucky because he wanted the ones that drew "the best straw" - 5 men including Odysseus - 2 more men (total of 6) - He offered the wine to him - He wanted more wine - The wine was actually good - He asks his name - He drank 3 wine bowls - Odysseus said his name was "Nobody" - The gift is he gets eaten last - He fell over on his back and slept as the wine and threw up - They heated up the stick and stabbed the monsters eye - They turned it and the eyeball bursts (ew) - I drove my weight on it from above and bored it home AS a... - They stabbed him in the eye and twisting it until his eyeball explodes - He roared and screamed "Nobody stabbed me" - Cyclops dad is Poseidon - (the door is open) - He opened the door - He noticed the flocks - They attached to the belly of the sheep and had them run out - The rams ran out of the cave at dawn - The Cyclops is talking to the sheep saying, "why all of a sudden are you last out of the pack?" - Took the sheep - Odysseus was yelling at the cyclops and mocking him - The cyclops took a chunk of the mountain top and threw it at the ship - He kept mocking the cyclops - He yelled his name - Cyclops then yelled down to tell Poseidon to curse the men at sea and so he did - They escaped death once more - Review over chapter 9: Odysseus has his men under a sheep with three sheep to hold onto but he is alone on the sheep. The cyclops stops and talks to the ram and is like hey why are you the last one out and stuff like that then lets him go. Odysseus starts taunting him and yelling stuff at him. Odysseus calls him a cannibal and cyclops throughs a boulder at them. The boulder splashes the men back to shore. He then says his name to the cyclops. Someone told him as a prophecy that Odysseus would blind him but he didn't believe it until now. Odysseus says he wishes he could kill him and send him to hell. Cyclops goes off (lol). Cyclops curses him and says he wants to lose his men and have awful things happen to him. The cyclops throws another boulder and almost hits the ship and they just keep going away from the island. They give an offering to Zeus since he is more powerful

some formal writing rules

- Do not use first-person pronouns ("I," "me," "my," "we," "us," etc.). ... - Avoid addressing readers as "you." ... - Avoid the use of contractions. ... - Avoid colloquialism and slang expressions. ... - Avoid nonstandard diction.

writing the essay

- create an argumentative thesis statement, using details of the text to support your argument, rounding out your discussion with a conclusion statement - do not use first or second person pronouns - use good grammar

characteristics of an epic

-epic hero -epic plot -epic setting -archetypes -epic themes The hero is outstanding. They might be important, and historically or legendarily significant. The setting is large. It covers many nations, or the known world. The action is made of deeds of great valour or requiring superhuman courage. Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—insert themselves in the action. It is written in a very special style (verse as opposed to prose). The poet tries to remain objective. Epic poems are believed to be supernatural and real by the hero and the villain

MLA format

1" margins, Times New Roman, 12 Point Font, Double Space, In text citations are written using the author's last name and page number, your name and page number in top right corner.

some SLOB quotes

1. "People who think dying is the worst thing don't know a thing about life." Lily, p.2 Lily says this in the beginning of the novel during the exposition. This is an important quote because Lily's life has been profoundly affected by her mother's death. This statement suggests that living with someone else's death can be more painful that dying. 2. "Please, Lily, you are insulting your fine intelligence. Do you have any idea how smart you are?" --Mrs. Henry, p.16 Lily's teacher says this to her when Lily mentions that she wants to be a hairdresser. This is an important quotation because it shows that Lily's self-esteem is low from living with T. Ray and that believing in someone can be very powerful. After Mrs. Henry says this to Lily, Lily believes she can be a writer and practices whenever she can. 3. "The truth is your mother ran off and left you." -T. Ray, p.39 T. Ray says this to Lily when they return from the jail. Lily is so outraged by this statement that she runs away, only to find out he was telling truth. 4. "But she's white, August." -June, p.87 June says this to August about Lily. When Lily overhears June make this comment, she becomes angry and thinks how absurd it is to dislike someone for her skin color. This is an interesting moment in the novel because white people do not usually experience this type of discrimination. 5. "Well if you have a queen and a group of independent-minded bees that split off from the rest of the hive and look for another place to live, then you've got a swarm." -August, p. 93 This statement explains how Lily feels, having broken away from her "hive." She is moving senselessly, like bees in a swarm. 6. "Our mother said she was like Mary, with her heart on the outside of her chest." -August, p. 97 August says this about May. This statement characterizes May's emotional personality. 7. "Lily, I like you better than any girl I've ever known, but you have to understand, there are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you." -Zach, p.135 Zach says this to Lily regarding any potential romantic relationship between them. This comment shows how unfair racism is. Young love is typically carefree and easy. However, as young teenagers, Lily and Zach have to think about the prejudices of the larger society. 8. "Most people don't have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about" -August, p.148 This quotation is significant because, developing the metaphor of society as hive and bee as human, it shows that people are typically much more complicated that then appear on the surface. 9. "Putting black cloths on the hives is for us. I do it to remind us that life gives way into death, and then death turns around and gives way into life." -August, p.206 Death as giving way to life is seen twice in this novel. The first instance is the way that May's death propels June to marry Neil, thus establishing their new life together. The second time is when Lily finally reconciles with her mother's death and is set free to truly begin her own life. 10. "It was you who did it, Lily. You didn't mean it, but it was you." T. Ray, p. 299 This statement occurs during the novel's climax. Lily chases T. Ray and asks him if she was responsible for Deborah's death. That Lily chases T. Ray in order to find out this information suggests she is prepared for the possibility that she has killed her mother. In allowing herself to know this information, Lily begins to forgive herself for the past.

Holden Caulfield

the protagonist and narrator of the story

a main question (SLOB)

where is Lilly's mother

Clytemnestra

wife of Agamemnon who had him murdered when he returned from the Trojan War

holden quotes

1."People never notice anything." 2."Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell." 3."That's something that annoys the hell out of me- I mean if somebody says the coffee's all ready and it isn't." 4."I'm always saying "Glad to've met you" to someone I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though." 5. "It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true." 6."That's the whole trouble. When you're feeling very depressed, you can't even think." 7."Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone." 8."Lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most." 9. "People are always ruining things for you" 10. "I don't care if it's a sad good-bye or a bad good-bye, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse."

Foil

A character who acts as a contrast to another character

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as"

Irony

A contrast between expectation and reality

Symbolism

A device in literature where an object represents an idea.

Personification

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

Eurymachus

A manipulative, deceitful suitor. Eurymachus's charisma and duplicity allow him to exert some influence over the other suitors.

Motif

A recurring theme, subject or idea (dominant idea)

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces

Diction

A writer's or speaker's choice of words

Agamemnon

Agamemnon - Former king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus, and commander of the Achaean forces at Troy. Odysseus encounters Agamemnon's spirit in Hades. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, upon his return from the war. He was later avenged by his son Orestes. Their story is constantly repeated in the Odyssey to offer an inverted image of the fortunes of Odysseus and Telemachus.

themes of CITR

Alienation as a form of self-protection The painfulness of growing up The phoniness of the adult world

Epic Simile/Homeric Simile

An extended comparison using like or as to compare two seemingly unlike things.

Lilly Owens

she is a loving, caring, and sneaky.

Tone

Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character

timeline of citr

Bye-bye, Holden: when we first met our intrepid hero, he's just been kicked out of his prep school, Pencey. After saying an awkward goodbye to his former history teacher, Holden messes around with his dorm-mate, Ackley, and finds out that his roommate, Stradlater, has a date with his old friend, Jane Gallagher. This bothers him, so he spends more time with Ackley to avoid thinking about it. He also writes an essay for Stradlater about his dead brother's baseball mitt, which has poems written on it in green ink. In fact, the mitt is just a catapult for a digression on Allie and the impact his death had on Holden, who broke all the windows in his garage in response. When Stradlater returns, Holden gets in a fight with him for possibly-maybe hooking up with Holden's childhood crush, Jane Gallagher. It ends badly for Holden. Most things ends badly for Holden. He decides to get out of Pencey and bum around New York for a few days. (It's Saturday, and he can't go home until Wednesday unless he wants his parents to know he's been kicked out.) After an ambiguous encounter with an older woman on the train, Holden thinks about calling Jane, or his brother D.B., or his sister Phoebe, or any other acquaintances, and ends up ... not calling anybody. Holden tries to get a drink and get lucky, and fails. Repeatedly. Eventually, Holden settles down to think (again) about Jane Gallagher. Turns out, she may have been sexually abused by her stepfather. He ends up at Ernie's, a nightclub in Greenwich Village (where apparently you can drink at sixteen) and runs into an ex-girlfriend of his older brother, D.B. She annoys him. Of course. Back at the hotel, Maurice the elevator man offers to procure Holden a prostitute. He agrees—got to get in some practice in case he ever gets married, you know. But when Sunny shows up in his room, Holden realizes he's not so much in the mood and he'd rather just talk. Sunny's not so much the great conversationalist, so she leave—but not before jacking up the price. Holden refuses. Whaddya know: a little while later (after some depressing rumination about Allie), Maurice and Sunny show up looking for the extra five dollars. Maurice shoves Holden and, at being called a moron by a crying Holden, punches him in the stomach as well. Once they leave, Holden imagines that Maurice has shot him in the gut. As he tries to fall asleep, he says he'd jump out the window and commit suicide if he weren't worried about everyone below looking at his gory body afterwards. The next day, Holden makes a movie date with Sally Hayes, then donates ten dollars to two nuns and discusses Romeo and Juliet with one of them. Holden decides to buy the Little Shirley Beans record for Phoebe; on the way to the store, he overhears (and perhaps mishears) the little boy singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye." After breakfast, Holden goes to the park to wait for Sally. While there, he runs into a little kid who knows Phoebe and says she might have gone to the museum with her class. He helps her tighten her skates. Holden sees the movie with Sally, makes out with her, and tells her he loves her. They go ice skating; he brings up the possibility that they could run away together, and yells at her when she's less than enthusiastic about it. They fight and Holden leaves. Next up in failed encounters, he meets an older friend Carl Luce, gets pretty drunk, and then alienates Carl by only wanting to talk about sex. Things go downhill rapidly. After some drunken wandering around, Holden sneaks into his home to see Phoebe. Since Holden at this point has nowhere to sleep, he calls up Mr. Antolini, an old English teacher of his, and arranges to head over to his place. Mr. Antolini lectures him about how school is cool before putting him to sleep on the couch—and then there's a somewhat odd encounter where he wakes up to find Mr. Antolini sitting on the floor beside the couch, petting his hair. Holden bolts and then walks around until morning basically having a psychotic break where he feels like every time he steps off of a curb he's going to disappear. His solution? He'll hitchhike out west and live as a deaf-mute so he doesn't have to listen or talk to anybody. But first he has to go say good-bye to Phoebe. He heads to her school to leave her a note, and gets really bummed out about all the vulgar graffiti. Holden goes to the museum to kill some time. He explains all about mummies to two kids (brothers), passes out in the bathroom, and sees yet another "**** you" sign. At lunch, Phoebe shows up to meet Holden—with a suitcase. She wants to go with him. Holden says no, argue argue argue, and they finally decide to go to the zoo. Phoebe rides the carousel twice. Holden stands there in the rain, watching her, incredibly happy. And then ... Holden goes home. The final chapter explains that he's in therapy and everybody keeps asking him what he thinks about all of this. Holden says he wishes he had never started talking about all of this in the first place; once he started telling these stories, he began missing everybody. Yes, everybody.

Theme

Central idea of a work of literature

Cicones

Citizens of Thrace, allies of Troy; Odysseus and his men raid Thrace after they leave Troy.

Aegisthus

son of Thyestes, seducer of Clytemnestra and murderer of Agamemnon, killed by Orestes

Athena

Daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom, purposeful battle, and the womanly arts. Athena assists Odysseus and Telemachus with divine powers throughout the epic, and she speaks up for them in the councils of the gods on Mount Olympus. She often appears in disguise as Mentor, an old friend of Odysseus.

Imagery

Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

characteristics of an epithet

Epithet is a descriptive literary device that describes a place, a thing, or a person in such a way that it helps in making its characteristics more prominent than they actually are. Also, it is known as a "by-name," or "descriptive title."

Poseidon

God of the sea. As the suitors are Odysseus's mortal antagonists, Poseidon is his divine antagonist. He despises Odysseus for blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and constantly hampers his journey home. Ironically, Poseidon is the patron of the seafaring Phaeacians, who ultimately help to return Odysseus to Ithaca.

cather in the rye characters

Holden Caulfield - The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just been expelled for academic failure from a school called Pencey Prep. Although he is intelligent and sensitive, Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. However, the criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as anyone else in the book. As the novel opens, Holden stands poised on the cliff separating childhood from adulthood. His inability to successfully negotiate the chasm leaves him on the verge of emotional collapse. Ackley - Holden's next-door neighbor in his dorm at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a pimply, insecure boy with terrible dental hygiene. He often barges into Holden's room and acts completely oblivious to Holden's hints that he should leave. Holden believes that Ackley makes up elaborate lies about his sexual experience. Stradlater - Holden's roommate at Pencey Prep. Stradlater is handsome, self-satisfied, and popular, but Holden calls him a "secret slob," because he appears well groomed, but his toiletries, such as his razor, are disgustingly unclean. Stradlater is sexually active and quite experienced for a prep school student, which is why Holden also calls him a "sexy bastard." Jane Gallagher - A girl with whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer, when their families stayed in neighboring summer houses in Maine. Jane never actually appears in The Catcher in the Rye, but she is extremely important to Holden, because she is one of the few girls whom he both respects and finds attractive. Phoebe Caulfield - Phoebe is Holden's ten-year-old sister, whom he loves dearly. Although she is six years younger than Holden, she listens to what he says and understands him more than most other people do. Phoebe is intelligent, neat, and a wonderful dancer, and her childish innocence is one of Holden's only consistent sources of happiness throughout the novel. At times, she exhibits great maturity and even chastises Holden for his immaturity. Like Mr. Antolini, Phoebe seems to recognize that Holden is his own worst enemy. Allie Caulfield - Holden's younger brother. Allie dies of leukemia three years before the start of the novel. Allie was a brilliant, friendly, red-headed boy—according to Holden, he was the smartest of the Caulfields. Holden is tormented by Allie's death and carries around a baseball glove on which Allie used to write poems in green ink. D. B. Caulfield - Holden's older brother. D. B. wrote a volume of short stories that Holden admires very much, but Holden feels that D. B. prostitutes his talents by writing for Hollywood movies. Sally Hayes - A very attractive girl whom Holden has known and dated for a long time. Though Sally is well read, Holden claims that she is "stupid," although it is difficult to tell whether this judgment is based in reality or merely in Holden's ambivalence about being sexually attracted to her. She is certainly more conventional than Holden in her tastes and manners. Mr. Spencer - Holden's history teacher at Pencey Prep, who unsuccessfully tries to shake Holden out of his academic apathy. Carl Luce - A student at Columbia who was Holden's student advisor at the Whooton School. Luce is three years older than Holden and has a great deal of sexual experience. At Whooton, he was a source of knowledge about sex for the younger boys, and Holden tries to get him to talk about sex at their meeting. Mr. Antolini - Holden's former English teacher at the Elkton Hills School. Mr. Antolini now teaches at New York University. He is young, clever, sympathetic, and likable, and Holden respects him. Holden sometimes finds him a bit too clever, but he looks to him for guidance. Like many characters in the novel, he drinks heavily. Maurice - The elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel, who procures a prostitute for Holden. Sunny - The prostitute whom Holden hires through Maurice. She is one of a number of women in the book with whom Holden clumsily attempts to connect.

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger

Menelaus

King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen, he helped lead the Greeks in the Trojan War. He offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find Odysseus when Telemachus visits him in Book 4.

Zeus

King of gods and men, who mediates the disputes of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is occasionally depicted as weighing men's fates in his scales. He sometimes helps Odysseus or permits Athena to do the same.

SLOB characteristics

Lily Melissa Owens - The novel's protagonist and narrator. Lily is a fourteen-year-old white girl born on the Fourth of July in 1950. When she was four, she accidentally killed her mother, Deborah. Along with her abusive father, T. Ray, whom she cannot call "Daddy," she lives on a peach farm in rural South Carolina. Isolated and insecure, Lily fears that she lacks all femininity and imagines that her mother is her guardian angel, watching over and loving her from beyond. Lily loves and trusts Rosaleen, a black housekeeper who helped raise her, and she finds the racism so prevalent in the south confusing. Over the course of the novel, she grows into a loved and loving young woman, who sees beyond skin color. Lily's most prized possessions are a few things of her mother's she found in her father's attic: a picture of Deborah, a wooden picture of a black Mary, and a pair of white gloves. She loves to write and hopes to one day become a writer. Late in the novel, she finds a close friend and stand-in mother in August Boatwright and her sisters, June and May. In addition, her femininity blooms when she realizes her attraction to Zach, a young black man who helps out on the Boatwright farm. Lily also finds herself enchanted by bees, first by those living inside the walls of her room and later by those on August's farm. August Boatwright - A middle-aged black woman who welcomes Lily into her home. August lives in a pink house in Tiburon, South Carolina, with her two sisters, May and June. Together, May, June, and August are known as "the calendar sisters." August has chosen not to marry because she does not want to give up the autonomy of her independent womanhood. August works as a beekeeper and honey/beeswax manufacturer on a 28-acre farm she inherited from her grandfather. By selling honey, she supports herself and sisters, as well as Lily and Rosaleen, once they come to stay at her house. August is a warm and loving lady, skinnier than Rosaleen but still larger-than-life to Lily. As a young woman, August attended school and worked as a teacher, then she became a housekeeper in the home of Deborah, Lily's mother, when Deborah was a child. August created an alternate religion for herself and her friends based around a statue of a black Mary that has been passed through generations of her family. She teaches Lily about this religion and spirituality in general, as well as about beekeeping and love. Read an IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF AUGUST BOATWRIGHT. Rosaleen Daise - Lily's nanny and first friend. Rosaleen is a black woman who originally worked as a peach picker in the fields belonging to Lily's father. Six months after Lily's mother died, T. Ray took Rosaleen out of the fields and assigned her to taking care of Lily. She is a very large woman who often burps and speaks her mind clearly, openly, and without self-censorship. Proud and determined, Rosaleen quickly stands up for herself, even in the face of violent, racist men. She loves Lily, helping to mediate between Lily and her abusive father, and she goes along somewhat reluctantly with Lily's plans out of a combination of love and pity for the young girl. Later, she becomes close friends with May Boatwright and easily becomes part of the Daughters of Mary religious community in Tiburon. Rosaleen did have a husband at one point, although she found him to be stupid. Deborah Fontanel - Lily's mother. Deborah was shot accidentally by four-year-old Lily. At the time, she had already left Lily and T. Ray and gone to stay with her old housekeeper, August Boatwright, in Tiburon. Deborah was an attractive and lively woman who became depressed living in Sylvan and had trouble acting as a responsible mother. Zachary Taylor - Lily's best friend and romantic interest. Zach is a junior at the black high school in Tiburon and plays football for the school team. He is handsome and has one dimple when he smiles. He is ambitious and hopes to be a lawyer someday, although he has never heard of a black lawyer. Sensitive Zach forms an attachment to Lily, giving her gifts and positive attention. He works on the Boatwrights' farm to earn money for college, to buy a car, and to be self-reliant. Terrence Ray (T. Ray) Owens - Lily's father. A peach farmer, T. Ray was once passionately in love with Lily's mother, to whom he was married. After his wife left him and later died, he became a bitter and resentful man. He abuses and punishes Lily by making her kneel on dried grits, making fun of her attempts to better herself through reading, and refusing to offer her any signs of love. T. Ray takes out his general resentment and bitterness on Lily, the product of his lost love. June Boatwright - Sister of August and May and part owner of the Boatwright farm. June finds it difficult to like Lily at first because she resents August's involvement in the white world as a housekeeper for Lily's mother. In her spare time, June volunteers as a cellist for the local hospital, where her music soothes dying patients. She is involved in a love affair with Neil, to whom she refuses to get married. Stubborn and strong-headed, June eventually shows herself to be kind and caring as well. May Boatwright - Sister of August and June and a friend and roommate to Rosaleen. May once had a twin sister, April, who was depressed and committed suicide at a young age. Since that time, May has become extremely sensitive and prone to depression. When sad, May sings the song "Oh! Susanna" and removes herself to spend time alone by a special wall she has constructed outside the house—her own "wailing wall." A very warm person, May spends most of her time taking care of the Boatwright house by cooking and cleaning for the other ladies. She eventually kills herself in the river. Neil - A very tall man who courts June Boatwright. Neil helps around the farm but lives elsewhere. He is kind to Lily and one of the few grown men in the novel that is gentle and honest. The Daughters Of Mary - A group of African Americans who have created their own religion, based around the Boatwright statue of the black Mary. Although most group members are women, there are some men who attend the Daughters get-togethers and celebrations. Lily and Rosaleen participate in this religion while staying at August's farm. Queenie - One of the Daughters of Mary. She dresses in bright colors and wears large, ornate hats. Violet - One of the Daughters of Mary. Like her mother, Queenie, she dresses in fancy clothes and wears a decorative hat. Lunelle - One of the Daughters of Mary. She is the hat maker and wears the most outlandish hats of all. Lunelle makes a hat for Lily. Cressie - One of the Daughters of Mary. Her handicraft skill is crocheted octopuses. Mabelee - One of the Daughters of Mary. Sugar-Girl - One of the Daughters of Mary. She is married to Otis Hill and brings him along to most of the Daughters of Mary events. Otis Hill - The wife of Sugar-Girl. A kind black man, Otis often attends the Daughters of Mary get-togethers. Clayton Forrest - Zach's mentor and Tiburon's principal lawyer. A white man with a successful practice, Clayton takes an interest in Zach and encourages him to become a lawyer. His office is decorated with pictures of him with his daughter. Clayton is also an old friend of August's. April Boatwright - May's twin sister. She committed suicide in childhood by shooting herself with a shotgun. Her childhood temperament was very similar to May's adult temperament: overly sensitive and depressed. Brother Gerald - The minister of a church in Sylvan. Lily attended his church when she was growing up. A pious man with racist tendencies, Brother Gerald is also rather foolish, as Lily has no problem tricking him. He is also self-righteous and petty. Franklin Posey - The ringleader of Rosaleen's attackers. Franklin is known in Sylvan as one of the most violent and reactionary racists. Avery Gatson - The Sylvan cop that arrests Lily and Rosaleen. His friends call him "Shoe." He is passively racist. Miss Lacy - Mr. Forrest's secretary. Slightly racist, Miss Lacy finds the fact that Lily lives with black women very disturbing. Becca Forrest - The daughter of Clayton, the lawyer. She is a year younger than Lily and eventually becomes her friend in Tiburon. Mrs. Gatson - The jail keeper and wife of the cop Avery Gatson. Rose Campbell - The name Lily uses for her grandmother when she arrives in Tiburon. Aunt Bernie - The name Lily uses for her aunt when she arrives in Tiburon. Frogman General Store Clerk - The clerk at Frogman General Store. He is a small, gullible, pious man.

SLOB timeline

Lily is a lonely 13-year-old girl who misses her late mother, despises her abusive father, and yearns for a life with a bit more love in it. On the day of her 14th birthday, she accompanies Rosaleen, the woman who takes care of her, into town. Rosaleen gets into a fight with some men who start harassing her, and she and Lily end up in jail. T. Ray comes and fetches Lily pretty quickly, but they have a huge argument, and Lily realizes she needs to get out of that house. She goes and busts Rosaleen out of police custody, and the two women make their way to Tiburon, S.C., where Lily believes she will find friends of her mother's. She quickly locates the Boatwright sisters and finagles an invitation to stay there and work for them. However, she's not completely honest about her background or reason for being there. She takes to life at the Boatwright house—including beekeeping—easily. Also, she befriends the other apprentice beekeeper, Zach. They would like to get romantically involved but decide it's too dangerous due to race relations at that time (since Lily is white and Zach is black). She and August eventually have a heart-to-heart in which Lily reveals her identity and reasons for being on the run. She learns a lot of new information about her mother from August, who, it turns out, had known Lily's mom since she was a child. Lily finds a lot of the information upsetting initially, but she gets over it in due time. Lily ends up being able to stay with August indefinitely, after convincing T. Ray she's better off where she is. Rosaleen stays, too, and so they end up one big happy family.

SLOB summary

Lily, a fourteen-year-old white girl, lives alone with her father, a peach farmer, in Sylvan, South Carolina. As the novel opens, she lies in bed, waiting for the bees that live in the walls of her bedroom to emerge and fly around, as they do most nights. T. Ray, her father, is abusive and does not believe her story about the bees. Her nanny and housekeeper, Rosaleen, believes Lily but also thinks Lily is foolish for trying to collect the bees in a jar. Lily recalls her very last memory of her mother, Deborah, who died when Lily was a small child. Lily thinks that she played a horrible part in Deborah's death. In a flashback, readers learn that T. Ray told Lily that she accidentally shot Deborah while Deborah and T. Ray were fighting one day. The next morning, Lily accompanies Rosaleen into town, where Rosaleen intends to register to vote. Instead, a group of racists harass Rosaleen, who winds up getting arrested for affronting them. T. Ray picks up Lily at the prison and tells her that the men who accosted Rosaleen will most likely kill her. This news understandably frightens Lily, particularly as Rosaleen is the only person in her life who truly loves Lily. At home, T. Ray tells Lily that on the day she died Deborah had returned home to pick up just her clothes, intending to leave Lily behind. Lily notices that the bees have escaped from the jar she put them in, which leads her to have an epiphany: she needs to run away. Lily finds Rosaleen at the hospital, where Rosaleen has been taken after being beaten up by the arresting police officers. Together, Lily and Rosaleen hitchhike toward a town (Tiburon, S.C.) that Lily has found written on the back of a picture of a black Mary that once belonged to her mother. On the way, Lily feels free, as if a new life has begun for her. Rosaleen feels annoyed that Lily has broken the law only to head toward a town loosely associated with her deceased mother. In Tiburon, Lily learns that the black Mary picture comes from the label of a honey maker in town. Searching for this honey maker, she comes across the bright pink house of August Boatwright and her sisters. August invites Lily and Rosaleen to stay, although Lily makes up a false story to explain their needs. August decides that Rosaleen will help her sister May Boatwright around the house and Lily will learn beekeeping. Soon Lily and Rosaleen become members of the community centered around the Boatwright house: a close-knit group of African Americans, mostly women, who call themselves the "Daughters of Mary" and worship a three-foot-tall statue of a black Mary. Lily meets the honey farm helper, Zach, a handsome, intelligent, African American boy on whom she develops a crush. He develops feelings for her as well and buys Lily a notebook in which she can write stories. Lily grows closer and closer to August, beginning to love her and to find in her a surrogate mother. August urges her to open up about whatever led Lily to end up in Tiburon, but Lily worries that she will be sent back to Sylvan if the truth comes out. Meanwhile, Lily also learns how to care for bees and to understand her own ingrained prejudices. She visits a white lawyer in town who is helping Zach fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer. At the lawyer's office, she breaks down and calls her father. T. Ray is angry and indignant. The experience makes her miss her mother but also reaffirms her decision to run away. On a very hot day, Lily asks May if she ever knew anyone named Deborah Fontanel and learns that she has. With this, Lily receives absolute confirmation that her mother once spent time at the Boatwright house. Lily is simultaneously eager to find out more and anxious about exposing her true identity as Deborah's daughter. On her way to talk to August, Lily decides instead to ride with Zach into town to buy pieces for the car. There, Zach is amongst a group of black boys that assault a white man, and the entire group gets taken to jail. When Lily returns home, Clayton, the lawyer, has arrived to tell the Boatwrights that Zach has been arrested. They decide to hide the news from May, the most sensitive sister, because they know how upset she'd be. But May finds out and leaves the house alone. She commits suicide by drowning herself in the river. The next week is taken up with mourning and a funeral. Once another boy confesses, Zach is let out of jail, unpunished. Lily fails to find a chance to speak to August. One morning, Lily wakes to find that it is Mary Day and that the mourning is over. A two-day celebration begins. During it, Lily finds herself alone with Zach. He kisses her, and they vow to try to be together in the future, though they both recognize that their union is, at present, impossible. Lily then goes to August's room to wait for her. When August arrives, Lily tells her the truth of her life, of how she ended up in Tiburon and of how she killed her mother. August admits that she has known Lily's true identity all along and corroborates Lily's worst fear: that Deborah had already left her when she returned home and was shot to death. Deborah had gone to the house only to pick up her clothes. Feeling betrayed and upset, Lily begins to mourn for her mother. Days later, after she has recovered from her grief, her father arrives at the Boatwright house. Though T. Ray is angry and violent, Lily finally has the strength to confront him about the past and to call him "Daddy." August convinces him to let Lily stay in Tiburon. As T. Ray leaves, Lily asks him if she really killed her mother. He reports that she did. However, Lily has come to realize that he, just like her mother, is a flawed and complex human. In a way, she forgives him, but she nevertheless feels happy to continue living at the Boatwright house. In the fall, she returns to school, which she attends with Zach and where she makes other friends. August and her community become Lily's new family, and, at long last, Lily develops into a loved and loving person.

Hermes

Messenger of the gods

greek mores

Mores: customs and standards of a people; a society's ethical values are embedded in its mores Murder was a sin, but killing a man who had killed or gravely harmed or insulted someone was seen as a duty. Religious, paid attention to the ceremonial requirements of properly paying respects to the gods and goddesses Distinguish between civilized (those who had knowledge of agriculture; ate "wheaten" bread) and uncivilized(barbarian; often cannibals); civilized men honor the gods and believe in them

major conflict (slob)

Motherless Lily lives unhappily with her emotionally detached father, who claims that Lily, as a small child, accidentally killed her mother. When her black maid—and only friend—Rosaleen gets arrested for confronting three racists, Lily decides to break Rosaleen out of jail. Together they run away to a place Lily suspects her mother once spent time.

who is Holdens english teacher?

Mr. Antolini

who is Holdens history teacher

Mr. Spencer

MLA heading

Name, Teacher's Name, Class, Date

more about holden

he was lacking motivation, but his family kept him going, (phoebe and allie)

Laertes

Odysseus's aging father, who resides on a farm in Ithaca. In despair and physical decline, Laertes regains his spirit when Odysseus returns and eventually kills Antinous's father.

Telemachus

Odysseus's son. An infant when Odysseus left for Troy, Telemachus is about twenty at the beginning of the story. He is a natural obstacle to the suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite his courage and good heart, he initially lacks the poise and confidence to oppose them. His maturation, especially during his trip to Pylos and Sparta in Books 3 and 4, provides a subplot to the epic. Athena often assists him.

Polyphemus

One of the Cyclopes (uncivilized one-eyed giants) whose island Odysseus comes to soon after leaving Troy. Polyphemus imprisons Odysseus and his crew and tries to eat them, but Odysseus blinds him through a clever ruse and manages to escape. In doing so, however, Odysseus angers Polyphemus's father, Poseidon.

lilly owens motivations

lilly cares so much for rosaleen, and now August and all the girls. Her loving "mothers" are her motivation. her mother is a large motivation since the whole book is based on her journey to search for her mother

Metaphor

not literal ex: im so hungry i could eat a horse

what is CITR?

past tense

rhetorical appeals

Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. The three major appeals are to ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion).

Lotus Eaters

people who feed Odysseus's men lotus plants to make them forget Ithaca and become high

The Catcher in the Rye Summary

The Catcher in the Rye is set around the 1950s and is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden is not specific about his location while he's telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital or sanatorium. The events he narrates take place in the few days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas, when Holden is sixteen years old. Holden's story begins on the Saturday following the end of classes at the Pencey prep school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. Pencey is Holden's fourth school; he has already failed out of three others. At Pencey, he has failed four out of five of his classes and has received notice that he is being expelled, but he is not scheduled to return home to Manhattan until Wednesday. He visits his elderly history teacher, Spencer, to say goodbye, but when Spencer tries to reprimand him for his poor academic performance, Holden becomes annoyed. Back in the dormitory, Holden is further irritated by his unhygienic neighbor, Ackley, and by his own roommate, Stradlater. Stradlater spends the evening on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl whom Holden used to date and whom he still admires. During the course of the evening, Holden grows increasingly nervous about Stradlater's taking Jane out, and when Stradlater returns, Holden questions him insistently about whether he tried to have sex with her. Stradlater teases Holden, who flies into a rage and attacks Stradlater. Stradlater pins Holden down and bloodies his nose. Holden decides that he's had enough of Pencey and will go to Manhattan three days early, stay in a hotel, and not tell his parents that he is back. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his fellow Pencey students. Though he thinks this student is a complete "bastard," he tells the woman made-up stories about how shy her son is and how well respected he is at school. When he arrives at Penn Station, he goes into a phone booth and considers calling several people, but for various reasons he decides against it. He gets in a cab and asks the cab driver where the ducks in Central Park go when the lagoon freezes, but his question annoys the driver. Holden has the cab driver take him to the Edmont Hotel, where he checks himself in. From his room at the Edmont, Holden can see into the rooms of some of the guests in the opposite wing. He observes a man putting on silk stockings, high heels, a bra, a corset, and an evening gown. He also sees a man and a woman in another room taking turns spitting mouthfuls of their drinks into each other's faces and laughing hysterically. He interprets the couple's behavior as a form of sexual play and is both upset and aroused by it. After smoking a couple of cigarettes, he calls Faith Cavendish, a woman he has never met but whose number he got from an acquaintance at Princeton. Holden thinks he remembers hearing that she used to be a stripper, and he believes he can persuade her to have sex with him. He calls her, and though she is at first annoyed to be called at such a late hour by a complete stranger, she eventually suggests that they meet the next day. Holden doesn't want to wait that long and winds up hanging up without arranging a meeting. Holden goes downstairs to the Lavender Room and sits at a table, but the waiter realizes he's a minor and refuses to serve him. He flirts with three women in their thirties, who seem like they're from out of town and are mostly interested in catching a glimpse of a celebrity. Nevertheless, Holden dances with them and feels that he is "half in love" with the blonde one after seeing how well she dances. After making some wisecracks about his age, they leave, letting him pay their entire tab. As Holden goes out to the lobby, he starts to think about Jane Gallagher and, in a flashback, recounts how he got to know her. They met while spending a summer vacation in Maine, played golf and checkers, and held hands at the movies. One afternoon, during a game of checkers, her stepfather came onto the porch where they were playing, and when he left Jane began to cry. Holden had moved to sit beside her and kissed her all over her face, but she wouldn't let him kiss her on the mouth. That was the closest they came to "necking." Holden leaves the Edmont and takes a cab to Ernie's jazz club in Greenwich Village. Again, he asks the cab driver where the ducks in Central Park go in the winter, and this cabbie is even more irritable than the first one. Holden sits alone at a table in Ernie's and observes the other patrons with distaste. He runs into Lillian Simmons, one of his older brother's former girlfriends, who invites him to sit with her and her date. Holden says he has to meet someone, leaves, and walks back to the Edmont. Maurice, the elevator operator at the Edmont, offers to send a prostitute to Holden's room for five dollars, and Holden agrees. A young woman, identifying herself as "Sunny," arrives at his door. She pulls off her dress, but Holden starts to feel "peculiar" and tries to make conversation with her. He claims that he recently underwent a spinal operation and isn't sufficiently recovered to have sex with her, but he offers to pay her anyway. She sits on his lap and talks dirty to him, but he insists on paying her five dollars and showing her the door. Sunny returns with Maurice, who demands another five dollars from Holden. When Holden refuses to pay, Maurice punches him in the stomach and leaves him on the floor, while Sunny takes five dollars from his wallet. Holden goes to bed. He wakes up at ten o'clock on Sunday and calls Sally Hayes, an attractive girl whom he has dated in the past. They arrange to meet for a matinee showing of a Broadway play. He eats breakfast at a sandwich bar, where he converses with two nuns about Romeo and Juliet. He gives the nuns ten dollars. He tries to telephone Jane Gallagher, but her mother answers the phone, and he hangs up. He takes a cab to Central Park to look for his younger sister, Phoebe, but she isn't there. He helps one of Phoebe's schoolmates tighten her skate, and the girl tells him that Phoebe might be in the Museum of Natural History. Though he knows that Phoebe's class wouldn't be at the museum on a Sunday, he goes there anyway, but when he gets there he decides not to go in and instead takes a cab to the Biltmore Hotel to meet Sally. Holden and Sally go to the play, and Holden is annoyed that Sally talks with a boy she knows from Andover afterward. At Sally's suggestion, they go to Radio City to ice skate. They both skate poorly and decide to get a table instead. Holden tries to explain to Sally why he is unhappy at school, and actually urges her to run away with him to Massachusetts or Vermont and live in a cabin. When she refuses, he calls her a "pain in the ass" and laughs at her when she reacts angrily. She refuses to listen to his apologies and leaves. Holden calls Jane again, but there is no answer. He calls Carl Luce, a young man who had been Holden's student advisor at the Whooton School and who is now a student at Columbia University. Luce arranges to meet him for a drink after dinner, and Holden goes to a movie at Radio City to kill time. Holden and Luce meet at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel. At Whooton, Luce had spoken frankly with some of the boys about sex, and Holden tries to draw him into a conversation about it once more. Luce grows irritated by Holden's juvenile remarks about homosexuals and about Luce's Chinese girlfriend, and he makes an excuse to leave early. Holden continues to drink Scotch and listen to the pianist and singer. Quite drunk, Holden telephones Sally Hayes and babbles about their Christmas Eve plans. Then he goes to the lagoon in Central Park, where he used to watch the ducks as a child. It takes him a long time to find it, and by the time he does, he is freezing cold. He then decides to sneak into his own apartment building and wake his sister, Phoebe. He is forced to admit to Phoebe that he was kicked out of school, which makes her mad at him. When he tries to explain why he hates school, she accuses him of not liking anything. He tells her his fantasy of being "the catcher in the rye," a person who catches little children as they are about to fall off of a cliff. Phoebe tells him that he has misremembered the poem that he took the image from: Robert Burns's poem says "if a body meet a body, coming through the rye," not "catch a body." Holden calls his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who tells Holden he can come to his apartment. Mr. Antolini asks Holden about his expulsion and tries to counsel him about his future. Holden can't hide his sleepiness, and Mr. Antolini puts him to bed on the couch. Holden awakens to find Mr. Antolini stroking his forehead. Thinking that Mr. Antolini is making a homosexual overture, Holden hastily excuses himself and leaves, sleeping for a few hours on a bench at Grand Central Station. Holden goes to Phoebe's school and sends her a note saying that he is leaving home for good and that she should meet him at lunchtime at the museum. When Phoebe arrives, she is carrying a suitcase full of clothes, and she asks Holden to take her with him. He refuses angrily, and she cries and then refuses to speak to him. Knowing she will follow him, he walks to the zoo, and then takes her across the park to a carousel. He buys her a ticket and watches her ride it. It starts to rain heavily, but Holden is so happy watching his sister ride the carousel that he is close to tears. Holden ends his narrative here, telling the reader that he is not going to tell the story of how he went home and got "sick." He plans to go to a new school in the fall and is cautiously optimistic about his future.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language (sentence structure)

calypso

The beautiful nymph who falls in love with Odysseus when he lands on her island-home of Ogygia. Calypso holds him prisoner there for seven years until Hermes, the messenger god, persuades her to let him go.

background info on salinger (cather in the rye author)

publication date: 1951, although he was working on the novel for the last half of 1940s, after he returned from his service in WWII

Themes of SLOB

racism, finding your true self

major conflict (citr)

The major conflict is within Holden's psyche. Part of him wants to connect with other people on an adult level (and, more specifically, to have a sexual encounter), while part of him wants to reject the adult world as "phony," and to retreat into his own memories of childhood.

Antinious

The most arrogant of Penelope's suitors. Antinous leads the campaign to have Telemachus killed. Unlike the other suitors, he is never portrayed sympathetically, and he is the first to die when Odysseus returns.

Themes of the Odyssey

respect for the gods, fate, free will, cunning over strength, pride as a fault, disguise, loyalty

Helen

Wife of Menelaus and queen of Sparta. Helen's abduction from Sparta by the Trojans sparked the Trojan War. Her beauty is without parallel, but she is criticized for giving in to her Trojan captors and thereby costing many Greek men their lives. She offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find his father.

Penelope

Wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus. Penelope spends her days in the palace pining for the husband who left for Troy twenty years earlier and never returned. Homer portrays her as sometimes flighty and excitable but also clever and steadfastly true to her husband.

Thesis Statement/Claim

a short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point of an essay, research paper, etc.

stream of consciousness

a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind.

holdens characteristics

affected easily, sensitive, intelligent, judgy, depressed