Gender Roles In The Odyssey

Nearly all of the most important stories to society over the past thousand years has followed a very concise, and similar pattern. This pattern is known as the hero's journey. Conceived by Joseph Campbell, the hero's journey describes a similar path between many stores in which the protagonist goes through 12 stages. Starting with a call to adventure, going through trials, and eventually ending up back at a status quo. A very famous story which is known for following this path very consciously is The Odyssey in this epic the main character, Odyssey leaves his home to fight a war in Troy, after this he must return home but before this, he ends up having to go through many events very similar to the hero's journey. A story similar to this which also follows the hero's journey is the 1968 Planet of The Apes. In this movie, the main character Taylor travels through space for thousands of years before landing on a planet with his shipmates. However, this planet is nothing like anything he has ever seen before and is controlled by a species of apes rather than humans. Just like The Odyssey, The Planet of The Apes also follows the hero's …show more content…
In The Odyssey women and men are expected to do specific things, with very little variance. “So mother, go back to your quarters. Tend to your own tasks, the distaff and the loom, and keep the women working hard as well. As for giving orders, men will see to that, but I most of all: I hold the reins of power in this house” (89). Telemachus says to his mother. In contrast to this in The Planet Of The Apes there are no real gender roles between the apes. In the society men and women are treated as nearly equal. One of the main characters from the story is a woman who plays major role in all of the adventures of the characters. In conclusion the role of specific genders is very different in the two