. .”(18. 150-157). This can be seen as Odysseus stating that a man is only powerful when the Gods are on his side; the only way he made it through this journey was by “steeling” his heart, and keeping his faith in the Gods. In conclusion, in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, we see the roles that gods and fate play in the lives of mortals.
Poseidon turns the Phaeacian ship into stone to punish the Phaeacians for their obligations of assisting travelers and wayfarers. This raises an exception to xenos, the Greek moral code of hospitality. Zeus, throughout the Odyssey enforces this moral code and punishes those who do not follow its provisions. In book 13 he goes against this, as he approves of Poseidon’s punishment of the Phaeacians, who anger Poseidon by practicing good xenos and helping all travelers, including Odysseus, return home. Zeus says- “Earth shaker, you with your massive power, why moaning so?
Dresden should be used as an example that although we try to do good, it is not always successfully accomplished. This book presents the world in a rather cynical and uninspired manner. The man who saves Billy's life is only doing it for the glory of it, and eventually he wants Billy to die. As compared to Black Boy, this book does not show man's strife to become more or to achieve greatness. Instead, the book shows man inability to give up.
As Quoted in Millers book by the Character Mr. Hale, he states:” We must not blame each other but fear god and his Wrath.” This quote helps us to understand that we cannot blame others but must go through what trails an tribulations that god has intended. Mr. Hale also goes onto say that “we must look into ourselves to find what has thy done to anger god.” With all accusations going around our ancient society there is always going to be a minority in society. Lastly the connections with the McCarthy era and the people of Salem portrayed in Arthur Miller’s play of the Crucible are the impact of the government and the opinions of society. The government in tiny ways gives the public an image of what a problem is and then follows public opinion for popularity. A great example of this is given by Miller’s Character Reverend Paris a minister in Salem that is blaming others so that his reputation may not ceed.
In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, John Galt believes that selfishness is both moral and practical because having “concern with one's own interests” is concurrent with both the desire to live and the refusal to support “looters”. Galt believes that the survival of man is possible only by the use of the mind, this being demonstrated through his strict moral code. According to Galt, men must live by values and earn their living through production, rather than destruction and must never give or take the undeserved. Expectation for something in return for nothing is considered barbaric, leaving mutual trade as the only civilized method of human interaction. When selfishness is taken out of the equation and economic resources are seized from producers
Thucydides, Greek historian as well as a participant, writes of The Peloponnesian War and offers insight into the Athenians thoughts on why they feel it appropriate to ignore what others consider to be just or right. The Athenians believe that mere strength and power automatically grants them the authority to do as they wish and qualifies those actions as justice; and likewise those who are weaker are left no alternative than to endure what is dealt them (Newton). It is imperative to the Athenians that their subjects never think them weak, so when the Melians offered to maintain a neutral position, in order to avoid becoming involved in the ongoing dispute between the Athenian empire and the Spartan led Peloponnesian League; the Athenian’s response was an absolute no. Justice, in this case, was seen as something that was called for by the Melians, the weaker of two parties, only as a vehicle for self-preservation, and nothing more.
They continue to bring up the topic of pious and unpious actions. Euthyphro claims “the pious is to do what I am doing, to prosecute the wrongdoer…not to prosecute is impious.” Then, Socrates exclaims he is the defendant in his case because he believes it is difficult to accept the common knowledge the people believe about the goods, since there is no plausible evidence. As the dialogue continues, Socrates claims that “different gods consider different things to be just…for they would not be at odds with one another unless they differed about these subjects…(page 9, 7e)” Then the same things would be both pious and unpious. Simply, the nature of Socrates is to question and further complicate matters by counter arguments. Then Socrates states that the matter is finding who the wrongdoer is rather than how he must be punished.
This thought leads to decisions later made in the text. The Green Knight essentially tricks Gawain by not giving Gawain the knowledge of his supernatural abilities before challenging him to agree to his terms, Gawain refuses to back out of the deal. He believes that a true man of knighthood keeps his word and this relates a lot to his faith of making his worldly experience worth living. He stands by his commitments, even when it means jeopardizing his own life. The poem repeats the mention of Gawain’s deep fears and anxieties, but Gawain’s desire to maintain his personal integrity at all costs enables him to conquer his fears in his quest for the Green Knight.
Finally on the one hand Antigone could be described by the Greek word “mythos” that means fantasy, she lives in her own world and believes in “phusis”, everything that is natural (including of course burying her dead brother); On the other hand, Creon lives for the “logos”, the reason, what is right. He does not want to do anything outside the law because he is the one to install and impose the laws. Creon could remind us of a Sophoclean hero; nevertheless it is not as blatant as Antigone. He is also a very headstrong character, the fact that he is ready to kill his own niece proves his yearn and thirst for the applications of laws. The difference between both of them is that they aspire to two very different aspects of life; She wants respect and he wants power, we see that those two principles do not always agree with each other.
This journey helps Santiago learn new things about himself and other people. His destiny was right in front of him, but life had to have him go through the entire journey by crossing the dessert to overcoming impossible difficulties to find his treasure. We are absolutely not prisoners of fate; we are not in control of our fate we are innocent of what has been decided among us. Franklin D. Roosevelt had once stated, “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.” This quote clearly meant that we aren’t in control of fate, but we are in control of our actions and decisions. Catcher in the Rye and The Alchemist relates to this quote.