The Most Dangerous Game and The Odyssey

The Most Dangerous Game is a very suspenseful short story that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole entire read. It was rich with sensory details and full of good descriptions. I could easily picture the scenery and the faces of the characters. Even though it was haunting and a bit scary, I really loved the story. 

In the Most Dangerous Game (TMDG), there is a desire + danger= drama equation embedded in the plot and I believe the same equation is also in The Odyssey. In TMDG, the main character Rainsford, has the desire to survive and get home where it is safe when he is on the island. But on his boat, he has the desire to hunt jaguars. In the Odyssey, Ulysseys also desires to survive and get home safely. Rainsford experiences many life threatening situations such as being hunted by a madman and a pack of dogs. Ulysses also experiences many life threatening challenges. In the end, there is drama because of the strong will of the characters and the dangerous tasks in their way. Without these factors, the stories wouldn't be as epically dramatic.

In TMDG, there is enough background information about each character to understand who they are now. Even the general who seems like a very mysterious character is explained well enough for the reader to understand what he looks like, what he likes to do, and what nationality he is. And Rainsford is given enough background information for the reader to understand that he is a smart man and a skilled hunter. In the Odyssey, the characters are well explained and it makes the long epic poem easier to comprehend. Although they both include exposition, TMDG has a simpler exposition that follows just Rainsford while The Odyssey has the expositions of Telemachus and Ulysseys. The background information about the characters is needed in each story otherwise, they would be difficult to follow and not as interesting.

The conflict in TMDG is character versus man. In the story, Rainsford is being hunted by General Zaroff like a wild animal. Also, it could also be considered a conflict between Rainsford versus himself. He constantly has to remind himself not to loose his nerve while on the run. In The Odyssey, it is Ulysseus versus man/god or an external someone. Odysseus is battled by Neptune constantly throughout the story.

The complication in TMDG is General Zaroff. General Zaroff basically keeps Rainsford back from his desire to be safe. He is a fierce hunter/murderer who is hot on Rainsford's trail the entire story. Another complication is him falling off the boat. This ruined his whole jaguar hunting trip with his friend. Many more complications appear in the Odyssey. Ulysseys takes 20 painful years to get home! There were obviously many complications along his journey for it to take that long. For example, the encounter with Polyphemus started all of his problems. The giant ate his men and locked them in his cave for a couple of days. This held Ulysses back from his desire to get home.

In the Odyssey, there are many lengthy flashbacks detailing Ulysseys numerous adventures. While in TMDG, Rainsford has flashbacks of his previous hunting trips and remembers his tactics and tricks that he used. The Odyssey has more flashbacks than TMDG but I think this is because TMDG is a short story. 

In the end of both stories, there is a resolution. In TMDG and The Odyssey, the resolutions of each both include violence. In the end of TMDG, Rainsford escapes from General Zaroff and challenges him to a dual because he still feels uneasy about the guy. Zaroff agrees and is killed by Rainsford. In The Odyssey

Ulysses, Telemachus and a group of his servants kill the suitors who have been trying to woo Ulysseys wife. After Ulysseys and his team kill all the suitors, the suitors fathers come to avenge their sons. There is a short battle until Minerva makes peace between them. Both endings are very abrupt, but I liked TMDG's resolution better. 

The Odyssey's Best Scene

The Odyssey books 18-24

Today, I finally finished The Odyssey. Even though it was boring at some parts, the climax was extremely action packed.

My favorite part of The Odyssey is when Ulysses is on the Island of the Phaecians. I really liked it because it described a really good time for Ulysses to forget most of his troubles and just have fun. On the island Ulysses played sports, feasted, danced and told many stories of his voyage. When he had to leave the island of the Phaecians, they adorned him with numerous quality gifts to take back to his home in Ithaca. 

Something I didn't like about the story is there was hardly any action. The only places I can think of that had some action are when Ulysses shoved a sharp stick into the cyclop Polyphemius' eyeball, and the climax where Ulysses and a team of his friends slayed the suitors in a huge battle. But other than that, there isn't any action in any other books. This made the story drag on until it became long hours of reading. That's why I thought the book was boring in the beginning but as I got closer to the climax, then the story started to get somewhat interesting. 

One thing I found surprising about the book as a whole is how it is classified as a poem. This doesn't make much sense to me. Even though there are repeating lines I still find it hard to categorize The Odyssey as a poem.The Odyssey's format reminds me of The Giving Tree. The Giving Tree is a poem but it is in a story format. It is easier to tell that this book is a poem because there are rhyming words, but just like The Odyssey, The Giving Tree has repeating lines. Another surprising thing I found was that people were either extremely hospitable and nice or rude and violent. There didn't seem to be an inbetween feeling. Also, the people had many violent thoughts. Ulysses had once thought of bashing the suitors brains out and has had many other violent thoughts throughout the story. For example, when some of his maids were being rude to him when he was disguised as a beggar, he killed them after he changed out of his disguise. Personally, I don't think Ulysses understood how much a life is worth. Maybe it is because they get an afterlife in the house of hades but still, why couldn't he just fire them?

Overall, I thought the book was just ok. On a scale from 1 to 10, (10 being the greatest thing I've ever read) I would give it a 6. The repeating lines and how Ulysses told his story to everyone he met made the story pretty boring. Other than that, there were many good similes, epic poems, and descriptive scenes in the 24 books. Also, if you're going to read The Odyssey, make sure you have a good understanding of the Roman gods and the Trojan War.