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.