Weekly ELA Blog for the Week of 11/14

In what I have read so far of "The Odyssey" by Homer, the character Penelope, who is the wife of the hero of the story, Odysseus, plays a very important role in the narrative. For one thing, she is Odysseus's main inspiration to come home, besides his land. His yearning for her is what gives him the willpower to leave the opportunity of an immortal life alongside the goddess Calypso. However, beyond just being someone else's inspiration, Penelope also takes an active role in changing the tide of the story. The biggest thing she does in the story is avoid marrying any suitors who have come to marry her in the years her husband has been away. Even as they crowd her home, tire her servants, and kill her livestock, Penelope's resolve against the suitors stays strong, and she finds clever ways to keep them at bay until Odysseus may return and force them from her home. A specific piece of textual evidence for this is that she at one point told the suitors she needed to finish a sowing project before she could marry, and then cunningly snuck in to the room where the project was kept at night and unwove it a little bit to buy time..