A long Journey

I guess I never really thought about what it would be like to be Odysseus. Just think about it. Twenty years ago your first son was just born and boom, you get drafted into the army. You get stranded on an island on your way back from the war and the island happens to be inhabited by flesh eating Cyclopses! Your only chance of survival is by keeping a cool head and outsmarting the enemy.

I recently watch a movie that reminded me of this story. Its called War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. It is the story of a single father trying to get his children to Boston where they will be safe from the alien invaders. Throughout the movie he has to think of his kids lives before his. For instance, when an alien ship picks his daughter up, he lets it pick him up too so he can save her. This is like when Odysseus is trying to escape the cyclopes cave and put his life on the line to try and save his men.

Two men from two different time period, with the same long journey, who are both heroes. Joseph Campbell was right when he said that almost all myths have the same basic ideas. The ideas from hundreds of years ago still interest people in this modern world. The ideas of love, war, family, and persevering to get back home are for in both stories, The War of the Worlds and The Odyssey.   

Another similarity is in the Ancient Greece story of the Trojan horse being too good to be true for the Trojans. There are multiple cases in The War of the Worlds that are examples of something being to good to be true. In one scene, people are scrambling to get on a ferry that will take them to safety. This was true until one of the alien ships is seen under the boat. The people who didn't make it on the ferry were safe while those on the ferry were in peril. Another scene shows how no cars are working because of a freak electrical storm. All the cars except for Tom Cruise’s. This seems good until they almost lose their lives trying to keep the car from the prying hands of all the other refugees. One man holds them at gun point to get the car, and then he becomes the victim of the crowd.

This relationship has helped open my eyes to the possibilities of more everyday stories having similarities to these epics. It will be fun to find out how they link together.