Odyssey Essay

There are three main reasons why high school students should not be forced to read The Odessey. There are many things that high schoolers should not be exposed to.Things like violence, meaningless sex, and hard literature for kids to read. It is a good educational book with a large variety of vocabulary but it seems that the bad outweighs the good.
Violence plays a huge part in this epic story. Bloodshed is talked about so much that it cannot be healthy for a teenager's mind. Sure some violence is okay, but the Trojan War and killing all the suitors as they yelled "spare me", they tried to seduce his wife and that is what pissed him off, but it seems too much like a massacre. At the cave with the brawny cyclops was pretty bruttle. "As soon as the wood was on the point of catching on fire" they jabbed the fiery stick into the exasperated Polythemus. Like a scythe the wood peirced right through his eye. When they were anything but conspicuous tieing themselves to the underbellies of sheep. Polythemus is Posiedon's son and when Posiedon hears about this he makes it very hard for him to get home. Critics ban all sorts of books for violence and horror, so why is this book any different?
Next is the sex, Homer makes it seem so casual and harmless. Even though Odysseus was forced he still cheated on his wife with comely goddesses like Calypso and Circe. Calypso a nymph, didn't want Odysseus to leave till Hermes comes and says "That's the man, and the orders are to send him away at once." So she did what he said. Where the author makes sex seem casual, it can cause teenagers to think it is really only casual and can cause problems in a childs life, such as unplanned pregnancies.
Last is it can be very hard for high school kids to read. This book has long boring text than goes on and on. They prattle on forever about this long odyssey. As well as arduous vocabulary, many characters makes the book very difficult. For example if you don't remember a character it is very easy to get lost, that will cause distress. You may find that quizes are tough when you cannot remember certain details about certain characters.
Those are reasons that high school students should not be forced to read The Odessey. On the other hand it does have good vocabulary and a good story with Odysseus coming up with all his strategems. But truly it is a terrible book with all the warfare, sexual relations, and strenuous text.