Karina Swenson
IB English 1
30/09/02
The Waterways to Freedom
As human beings, we ought to be endowed with the freedom of choice for we are naturally striving for channels of free will. We have a propensity to perceive life in an individualistic manner as we are all distinct entities. The art of entrapment we see from time to time deprives and suffocates our very being as individuals. However, the struggles we overcome are not always resolved by our own involuntary response to problems, but at times our very survival depends on the help of others to conquer a period of difficulty. Homer’s The Odyssey is a primary example of the idea of man’s reliance on oneself and the occasional need for the assistance of others. Under Calypso’s power, Odysseus is entrapped in her possession and loses all hope to escape on his own. After seven lengthy years of Odysseus’s imprisonment, Hermes, the messenger of the gods, is sent by the gods to Calypso’s island to order the release of Odysseus so that he can continue on with his voyage home. At times throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus did not consider the consequences of his actions and depended on guidance from the gods to steer him in the right direction. This particular passage describes Odysseus as a lowly mortal and reinforces his need of the aid of higher beings to help him surmount his struggles. Homer employs the act of the will to survive with the additional help of the immortals using diction, imagery, and structure to establish an apparent passage that focuses directly on man’s struggle for freedom and the belief that man cannot escape his fate.
One time or another, everyone has yearned for the comfort of having someone nearby, someone that leaves you feeling reassured and intact. For this need for companionship, the beautiful seductive “magical” (36) nymph Calypso seizes Odysseus and compels him to live a sensual yet vegetative existence where he wastes seven years of his ten year journey home on the lavish, luxurious island of Ogygia. For ten years, surrounded by men, Odysseus lives out the male heroic ideal image of a warrior and then spends several years further testing himself against life-threatening obstacles. In the process, he loses all of his followers, and has nothing left but the little that remains of himself. Here on Calypso's island, he lives in majestic paradise: "A deep wood grew outside, with summer leaves of alder and black poplar, pungent cypress. Ornate birds rested there stretched wing – horned owls, falcons, cormorants – long-tongued beachcombing birds, and followers of the sea” (22-26). With the use of diction Calypso’s diatribe on Odysseus can be seen as a reaction to the reality of her life where she is a “crooking vine” (27) holding “purple clusters under ply of green” (28). The “purple clusters” effectively signifies Odysseus’ identity of a heroic leader, as the color purple represents royalty, who is twisted and detained under Calypso’s “crooking vine” of power. Homer employs the use of his selected words to also establish Odysseus’ ongoing journey where he “took channels here and there” (30). Odysseus’ waterways of home shifts through “beds of violets and tender parsley” (31), indicating his temptations of sexual relationships with various women, including Calypso, throughout his voyage home. Violet is an enticing color which Homer utilizes to suggest Calypso’s love and desire for Odysseus where he is entrapped on her island surrounded by the “violet ocean” (14). Through Homer’s establishment of words, he guides us to identify with Odysseus’ search for freedom under constraints of those who hold him back.
