Alex Day Ms. Foran
ENG2D-07 Scaddings
5/2/2007 Year 2
My Father’s Song Vs. The Odyssey
“My Father’s Song” and “The Odyssey” have a major theme in common which can be seen on two different levels. The common theme of the two poems is the “Father, Son” theme. The author, Simon Ortiz, from whose point of view we read “My Father’s Song”, can be compared as either Telemachus or Odysseus in “The Odyssey”. In either case, the relationship is that something is being passed down. Ortiz can be seen as two people, as a son, and as a father. Obviously, when he is a son, he is compared to Telemachus, and when he is a father, he is compared to Odysseus. Ortiz, along with Telemachus, miss their father. For Ortiz, his father is dead, and for Telemachus, his father is lost at sea. They both miss the emotional bond and psychological support that their father would provide for them. For Ortiz, it is his father’s songs, and for Telemachus, it is his father’s guidance and influence. Both of them, as sons, want something passed down to them. When Ortiz is compared with Odysseus they are both seen as fathers. Both wanting to pass something down to their children. Ortiz wants to pass along the song his father sang him to his own son, but for some reason the child does not want to hear it, or maybe Ortiz does not even have a son to pass it down to. Odysseus has guidance and wisdom he would like to pass on to his son, except he has not seen him in twenty years because he is being safeguarded on an island. In all cases, both as fathers and sons, tradition is being lost.
