Tayler

My English teacher is getting surgery. She won’t tell us what on, but it must be serious because she will be gone for 6 to 8 weeks. We have her aunt as a substitute while she is gone and she is a really tough grader. When she first got there we had to write a paper on why the ninth grade English teachers should keep The Odyssey in the curriculum. We worked on it for four days in class. We weren’t allowed to take it home because it was like a test. She gave me a 60% on it. I was so mad because I worked hard on it but than I gave it to her to take to my real English teacher and than she gave me a 67% on it. I’m not happy with that grade but at least it is 7% higher than what the sub. Gave me. Well here it is.

The Odyssey by the blind poet, Homer should stay in the curriculum for multiple reasons. It is great writing and you can learn many things from this interesting story.

The Odyssey has excellent writing. Homer uses different words that you don’t hear everyday such as “contending”, most writers would put fighting. The writing also makes you think about what is going on in the story. “Whatever the end up doing, our students are glad to have acquired the tools to understand and appreciate literature.” (Bernstein 2). You really do need the tools to understand, so it is challenging.

The second reason is you can learn many new thing, such as who Homer was or what it was like and how they talked back than. While reading this I learned what an epithet was. The Odyssey has lots of examples of them. “You can study a classic and discover influences from other writers and other great works of literature.” (Perez 1). There is a lot to study and learn from The Odyssey.

The third reason why the English teachers should keep The Odyssey , is because it is just a great story. It was scary, romantic, and hard to put down. I kept thinking I hope Odysseus gets home but I didn’t want his journey to end. “A classic has a certain universal appeal.” (Perez 1). It is a classic and it is appealing with it’s dangerous adventures.

Those are just some reasons why The Odyssey should stay in the curriculum. I am sure there a more reasons but these were my favorite parts of the story. Over all it is a marvelous epic.