Somebody help please(20 characters)?

So, i have to do this essay in english. It's a huge part of my grade and lately i've been getting b's and c's and i have to get straight a's this whole semester. So read over my essay and give me tips please?

In the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer all Odysseus longs for is to go home, to Ithaca, yet his path is obstructed by the gods for ten extensive years. He is faced with many obstacles and has to overcome many struggles to make it through a treacherous journey. Somehow Odysseus finds the strength and passion to go through this journey to get back to Ithaca. Odysseus shows what it truly means to be a hero with many traits of his. A few of these traits Odysseus has are courage, cautiousness, and obedience to the gods.

Being courageous or audacious isn’t always facile. Athena states one of Odysseus’s most courageous acts in the very beginning of the book, “he plundered the hallowed heights of Troy” (77). To fight in a war and risk your life for that of your country takes real courage and that Odysseus did. His courage shone brightly when he “seized our stake…and bored it round and round in the giant’s eye” (223). To get his men and himself, alive, from the giant he had to blind it which in turn risked his life. Odysseus’s courage was also present when he Eurymachus came to him, told him that the men where turned into pigs and Odysseus replies “lead me back the way that you came” (238) prepared to go save his men even if it means he might get turned into a pig himself.

Being vigilant is never a bad thing, especially being in Odysseus’s position. “Have I really reached the land I love?” (297) Odysseus asks Athena when he encounters her after he lands at Ithaca. He needs to be sure he’s at his home land since it seems as if the gods enjoy sending him anywhere but there. Sometimes being cautious can be a little dangerous though. When Poseidon gets angry at Odysseus and causes the sea to become an angry mass of rolling waves, Ino comes to help him. “take this scarf…it is immortal” she says so that Odysseus can swim and not drown. But, Odysseus who doesn’t trust the gods entirely decides “once the breakers smash…then I’ll swim” (163). Odysseus’s cautiousness is based upon mistrust in the gods. Even when they try to help him he cannot believe them because of their wrong doings in the past. An example would be Calypso who offers Odysseus to give him supplies and let him be free of her island after she has kept him prisoner for so long. Odysseus, who doesn’t believe her makes sure by making Calypso “swear, goddess, a blinding oath” (158).

Even though Odysseus may not trust the gods entirely he is obedient to them. When Odysseus is on his way to find his men after they got turned into pigs by Circe, Hermes stops him and gives him a list of instructions. In those instructions Hermes told him to run at Circe with his sword when she takes her wand out to stop her from bewitching him because she will be too afraid. As soon as Circe pulls her wand out Odysseus “drew my sharp sword…and rushed her fast” exactly as Hermes insisted. When Circe, now acquaintance rather than enemy of Odysseus, tells him to “make your own way down to the moldering House of Death” (246), Odysseus goes out to his men and tells them, “You think we are headed home….well, Circe sets

us a rather different course” (248). When Odysseus finally gets back home to Ithaca Athena is there to tell him all about how the suitors are “lording it over your house…counting your noble wife” (298) and Odysseus and Athena sit down and Odysseus wants Athena to “weave us a scheme so I can pay them back!” (299). Athena’s plan is to disguise him as an old man, one that nobody recognizes so that he can see who is really loyal to him and seek out the suitors. Odysseus agrees and “Athena stroked Odysseus with her wand” (300).

Many traits that Odysseus had, courage, cautiousness and obedience to the gods, displayed how the Greeks were back when The Odyssey was first written. Back in ancient Greece there were many wars that were fought. In a war you cannot be afraid to kill the enemy even if it means losing your life in return; here is where courage mattered most. Another trait you needed in war was cautiousness, just like Odysseus had. The ancient Greeks believed in the gods like, Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, etc. To satisfy the gods and gain their protection the ancient Greeks were obedient and loyal. Odysseus represents the traits that the Greeks had and the traits that were important. Even though Odysseus was a hero he made mistakes just like any other person, including the ancient Greeks.