Oddesy Essay Final Draft

Anastasia T. Mitchell
Hour 4
Revenge

The person who throws something back at their friend is the one who ends up in trouble. Revenge is something everyone feels at one point. When Someone throws a pencil, or something at another person, the friend automatically throws it back. That is a simple way of getting revenge. Similar to the revenge in "The Odyssey" by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles. Revenge, no matter what, only seems like a good idea at first. Most people think nothing will happen, and they have it coming to them, also that they themselves, will not get in any trouble. But the thing about revenge is, it doesn’t always go their way. There’s a chance things will go their way, but most likely it won’t. Going back to the pencil, someone's friend throws a pencil at their friend; nothing happens to them. Because of this, the friend picks it up and throw it back. Next thing they know, they're in trouble. Revenge seems satisfying, but it never really is in the long run. So in the end, revenge stabs people in the back.
Revenge, although wrong, can also help self esteem. If someone really thinks, that a person has done them wrong, than revenge can overall be helpful. Their way of revenge may be to make that person get caught. Then the person who has done them wrong is the one in trouble. If someone has hurt another person, and/or someone they care about, then revenge can help everyone. Odysseus gets revenge for his family and himself, "Only a priest, a prophet for this mob, you say?- How hard you must have prayed in my own house- that the heady day of my return would never dawn- my dear wife would be yours, would bear your children!- For that there's no escape from grueling- you die!" (22, 337-341) Revenge can be for the well being of others.
Now although revenge can help, this does not make it right! People can still get themselves, and others, in trouble for trying to get revenge. As said before, it's always the person who throws the pencil back that gets into trouble. And in most cases the person that throws it back ends up in more trouble than they would have if they had succeeded at getting revenge. So, still in the end revenge only stabs people in the back. And it's never worth it.
Another way of getting revenge, is getting revenge for someone else. Odysseus stabbed Poseidon's son's eye out. "I called back with another burst of anger, 'Cyclops- if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so- say Odysseus,- raider of cities, he gourged out your eye." (9, 557-561) this provokes Poseidon to get revenge on Odysseus. Like all other types of revenge, it only seems like a good idea. Poseidon, the god of earthquakes, tried to get revenge on Odysseus for stabbing his son's eye out. " At that a massive wave came crashing down on his head,- a terrific on slaught spinning his craft round and round- he was thrown clear or the decks- the steering-oar wrenched- from his grasp." (5, 346-349) In the end, getting revenge can actually give the person they were harming the confidence to keep going just to spite them.
So, in the very end, revenge can only help in a rare case, but ultimately it only hurts people and the people they care about. Revenge is something that happens when people are blinded by anger. And no true good can come from it. Even when it ends well for them, they still have to live with the facts of what they have done. And their choices can effect the people around them as well. Revenge is never worth it.

Citation:
"The Odysseys" By Homer Translated by Robert Fagles