Literacy Analysis
Heather Meduri
South University

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Literacy Analysis
The struggle between good and evil is prevalent in all aspects of life. Following an in-depth analysis of this concept, including the exploration of the theme of goof versus evil in Homer’s Odyssey and Dante’s The Divine Comedy, the forces of good and evil are clearly evident in both of these classics. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is a Greek hero who longs to return to his family and kingdom. It becomes clear that the forces of good and evil deter him from his goals. Dante’s The Divine Comedy, takes the reader on a different journey through Hell as Dante, a sinner, and yearns to find God’s love and forgiveness. Similar to Odysseus, Dante is deterred from this path by the sinners in Hell. The theme of the forces of good and evil are at play in both of these literacy classics. In Dante’s The Divine Comedy, the reader is taken on a literacy journey as the protagonist, Dante, narrates his personal excursion and experience through Hell, and reflects on his journey after a certain period of time. Set in Hell, the epic poem portrays Dante’s inner conflict as he struggles to attempt to find God in his life. In his quest to find God, Dante is delayed, as those who are sentenced to punishment in Hell impede him from his mission. It is evident that in this epic poem, evil is construed as the contradiction of God. Dante is trapped between the good he seeks in finding God and the evil he attempts to avoid by staying out of the path of the evildoers in Hell. The overwhelming struggle of good versus evil is evident in Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The God‘s in Homer’s Odyssey represents the struggle and variation on the theme between good versus evil. Books 9-11 consist of Odysseus’s flashbacks as he recants his tales to the Phaecians. Odysseus is revealing his long journey after escaping from Calypso, who held him as a prisoner on her island. Following his escape from the island, he is asked by Pharcians to retell the tale of his long and arduous escape, which involved brushes with good and evil. The goddess Athena is viewed as the good goddess, who undoubtedly Odysseus’s greatest advocate. She helped him escape from the wrath of Calypso. She shows her concern by stating, “There he is, lying in great pain in an island where dwells they nymph Calypso, who will not let him go; and he cannot get back to his own country, for he can find neither ships nor sailors to take him over the sea.” (Homer, 1900, version 5) She also helped him escape from Poseidon, the evil god of the sea, who sent a storm to wreck Odysseus’s ship. The god Zeus is also good because he contributed to Odysseus’s escape; specifically he sent Hermes to save Odysseus from Calypso. “Zeus steps in to punish the offended men and, like Noah or Lot, righteous men in the Old Testament, Odysseus alone is spared. He is, at long last, ready to advance to Purgatory.” (Frank, 2000) The gods in Homer’s Odyssey are either trying to save or destroy the main protagonist, and this portrayal of good versus evil could not be any more evident in this epic poem. Ultimately, good prevailed and Odysseus was able to return to his wife and kingdom. The theme of good versus evil is overarching in both of the epic poems by Dante and Homer. In the Divine Comedy, Dante has sinned and is seeking repentance from God. He goes on a journey through Hell in search of God’s love, but instead, he meets other sinners who seek to deter him from his path. His journey becomes one of overcoming evil to become good again. On the other hand, Homer’s Odyssey, the reader is taken on a long and winded journey as Odysseus seeks to escape from evil of Calypso and Poseidon to be reunited with his family and to restore his power in the kingdom of Ithaca. “Within the realistic frame of the Ithica setting resides a tripartite fantastic voyage through a pre-Christian Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Like Dante, some two