Odysseus Character Analysis

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Complications of a Soldier No matter how long one serves, the effects on a person after being a soldier are lifelong and difficult to cope with. Odysseus is a prime example of the way war can change a person. The struggles a modern soldier face are represented by the situations Odysseus faced in The Odyssey. He, like every modern soldier, is sent home to deal with his gained physical, mental, and social handicaps all on his own. While some things are out of human reach, there are many situations in which the feelings and needs of a soldier are overlooked by those who have not witnessed the same things. Upon returning home, Odysseus is informed of suitors trying to court his wife. In parallel, many soldiers come home to find that their significant other has not been faithful or something important has happened and they have not been informed. Among others, things like death in the family, birth in…show more content…
These soldiers spent everyday together with no one but each other, building an unbreakable bond. More often than not, they had to witness one of their men be brutally murdered, forever ingraining a terrible image in their memory. About 460,000 veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because of events like those. While venturing home, Odysseus loses many of his crew men. The men are lost to many different forces, which is a metaphor for the multitude of destructive weapons used in combat. Odysseus struggles more as he loses more men, representing how the soldiers may internally struggle with the people they lost. On some occasions, they lose family or someone who was immensely important to them. After seeing those people pass away in such an unfair way, those left behind are impacted in such a large way that it can send them spiraling into a state of depression. Once they return home to non militants, no one understands what they went through and how it affected

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