Get your essays here, 10,000 to choose from!

Limited Time Offer at MyTermPapers!!!

The Odyssey and Home

4 Pages 916 Words August 2018

The concept of manhood has always been to many young boys. They spend several years of guidance, determination, and trial and error. Toni Morrison’s Home, a novel surrounding twenty-four-year-old Korean War veteran Frank Money’s journey to find his younger sister centers itself around this concept. Frank is considered by many to be the modern Odysseus in this novel, going through several defining events that make him question his manliness. The original Odysseus in Homer’s The Odyssey strives to finish his own journey to show others how tough he truly is. Manhood to Frank and Odysseus is based on a certain level of selfishness, where one is focused on their redemption, the other on superiority.
Home shows the struggles that Frank must face as a black man in the 1950’s, where there is segregation and violence. After returning from the Korean War, Frank feels that his life is a mess, having to deal with a country that does not respect him, and difficulty recovering from the trauma he experienced. He begins to think that his life no longer has a purpose, and wastes all his army pay and loses a girlfriend because of his confusion and shock. After he receives a letter that his younger sister is close to dying, he rushes to find her. This journey leads him to not only save her, but save himself.
Frank receives help from a man named Billy, whose young son has a bad arm because a drive-by cop shot him. This interaction with the son, Thomas, causes Frank to tell him that he’ll “go far” because of his interest in his studies and Thomas states that he’ll “go deep.” Frank insensitively asks him what sports he plays, believing that “the boy needed a little humility” (Morrison, 32). Thomas is offended, but changes the topic to Frank’s experience in the army, asking how he felt killing others. Their conversation ends with Frank asking him what he wants to be when grows up, and Thomas answers, “A man” (Morrison, 33).
Ma...

Page 1 of 4 Next >

Essays related to The Odyssey and Home

Loading...