You may wonder what the main themes of "The Lost Books of the Odyssey" are. From reading the novel, I found they are death, aging, and homecoming. In this blog, I will give you the main themes, provide examples, and explain why they are the themes of the novel. The first main theme is death. In the novel, there are numerous instances in which the author, Zachary Mason, talks about death. In chapter 31, “Athena in Death,” it says, “He had often meditated on the form it would take and thought he had considered and prepared himself against every seaborne end but in the event dying was confusing, a jumble of impressions of foam and blood and long empty vistas” (Mason 167). In this quote, Odysseus is thinking about how the sea will kill him and how the idea of death is confusing for him still even though he has killed hundreds of people. The second main theme of the novel is aging. Aging goes along with death very well because as you age you get closer to death. In chapter 44, “Last Islands,” Odysseus reminisces on his past battles and stories by going back to the scenes of which they happened which is like someone’s grandpa talking about the war they fought in long ago as they go to a museum. On page 218 it says, “I could not think of myself as old but my world had become a traveler’s tale.... Though I was approaching my seventieth year I went to the gymnasium daily so that my guests would not wait till I had left and then say, ‘Can this be the man who was Odysseus’” (Mason)? He also talks about how he has told the tales so many times that he hardly remembers the actual events. On pages 218-219 it says, “One day I realized that I had told the stories of the cyclops, the sirens and the duel with Ajax so many times that I no longer remembered the actual events so much as their retellings and the retellings’ retellings, which through a gradual accretion of spurious detail and embellishment had, for all I knew, diverged drastically from the truth” (Mason). The last main theme I will be covering is the theme of homecoming. Similar to death, there is a lot of different varieties of Odysseus’ homecoming. One in which he takes the journey home to find Penelope with a new husband. Mason writes, “The man by the fire stands up looking possessive and pitifully concerned and in an intuitive flash Odysseus knows that this is her husband” (4). There is also a homecoming in which he finds Penelope with men around her when he is disguised as a messenger. In chapter 11, “A Might in the Woods,” reads, “Young gentlemen orbit around her with vacant faces and deferential postures, lighting up when she notices them. There is no furniture except the throne and piles of matted furs strewn on the ground. It smells musky, like an animal’s den. Penelope toys with the black hair of a lanky young man who lounges at her feet, his arm entangled in her legs, and studies me balefully while the men study her” (Mason 57). As you can see there are many homecomings for Odysseus. In the Odyssey, he comes home to a faithful wife. In the article from the Guardian, it says, “Penelope is indeed strong and true: she has kept the suitors at bay for a decade” (Higgins). In conclusion, “The Lost Books of the Odyssey” has three main themes death, aging, and homecoming. Mason focused on these themes for most of the novel. Tell me in the comments if you agree with my choices of the main themes of this novel.
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