What is the Determining Factor in Success or Failure
while Facing Adversity?
by Lillian Bonar
Essay: What is the Determining Factor in Success or Failure while Facing Adversity?
Pages: 11
Rating: 3 stars
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The question of what is the determining factor in success or failure while facing adversity, is one that has been
addressed in many works of art. In Homer’s The Odyssey, there are two passages where Odysseus and his crew
show the difference between a hero and villain. For instance, when they defeat the Cicones and, despite Odysseus
telling them to leave quickly, stay behind and choose to be “mutinous fools” due to there being “too much wine
to swill, too many sheep to slaughter down along the beach” (Homer 9.51-53), Odysseus’ crew shows their greed
and ends up being attacked by the other Cicones. In another passage, Odysseus, his son, and two of their servants
take on an entire house full of violent young suitors and slaughter all but two of them, afterwards, standing caked
in blood, Odysseus is spotted by his old nurse and tells her that “‘These men the doom of the gods has brought
low…And so, thanks to their reckless work, they met this shameful fate’” (Homer 22.433-445). What lead Odysseus
to victory against such insurmountable odds while his crew crawled away with their collective tails between their
legs after being attacked by an already beaten people?
The essence of that question is one that is not unique to any culture or era. People have been coming up with
stories about heroes and villains and struggles since people began coming up with stories. Heroes have a special
place in the heart of many cultures, the Chinese had Shennong, the Egyptians had Ramesses II, the English had
King Arthur, the Greeks had Odysseus, the Japanese had Okuninushi, the Navajos had Changing Woman, the
Norse had Starkad, the Romans had Hercules, and so on and so forth. Villains, similarly, play roles in the stories
and myths passed down from gen...