Analysis Of Sophocles The Cure At Troy And How I Learned To Drive

Improved Essays
In the plays The Cure at Troy and How I Learned to Drive, issues with the body are the driving forces that define the course of each of the plays. In these plays we encounter principal characters who suffer from injuries and dissatisfaction with their bodies being the sources of both physical and emotional pain. Therefore, the basis of this essay is to show how in both plays, The Cure at Troy and How I Learned to Drive, the principal characters who suffer from issues with their bodies are vulnerable to “predators” who want to take advantage of them.
In the play The Cure at Troy, Sophocles presents us a tragedy about pain and suffering through Philoctetes. Philoctetes was a great warrior who suffers from a deeply painful wound on the foot.
…show more content…
Philoctetes’ physical pain is conspicuous, while the emotional pain is implied through his dialogues where he expresses how hurt he feels for being abandoned: “Don’t treat me like an untouchable. What I am is what I was made into by the traitors.” (Heaney 15). Meanwhile, the physical repugnance rather than pain Li’l Bit felt was when Peck touched her the very first time: “That day was the last day I lived in my body. I retreated above the neck, and I’ve lived inside the fire in my head ever since.” (Vogel 90). Regarding the emotional pain Li’l Bit experiences is the aversion to her body because of the jokes others …show more content…
In The Cure at Troy, the antagonist, Odysseus, wants to take advantage of Philoctetes’ condition and steal his miraculous bow to win the war. In order to do this, Odysseus corrupts Neoptolemus’ honesty and integrity, and together they plan to trick Philoctetes with a false story. Surprisingly, we later learn about Odysseus’ opportunist personality when Neoptelemus reveals that he took possession of his father armor. Meanwhile, in How I Learned to Dive Peck is a depraved man who takes advantage of Li’l Bit’s innocence. Uncle Peck is depicted as an expressive, charismatic man who shows deep interest in Li’l Bits education and teaches her to drive, while also demonstrating a little too much interest on her. When her family bothers Li’l Bit with comments about her body, only Peck shields her from the insults. Nevertheless, we see how wicked Peck is when he convinces Li’l Bit to do the photoshoot and when he takes Bobby to fish saying to both of them: “It’s a secret, you can’t tell anybody… This is something special just between you and me.” (Vogel

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Everybody has a different opinion on what it means to be in pain. The Hunger Artists, in Franz Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist” is famous for his forty-day fasts, but is his hunger his source of misery? Shepherd in Flannery O’Connor’s “The Lame Shall Enter First” believes that Rufus Johnson’s clubfoot is the cause of Rufus’s suffering, and his son’s is selfishness, but is this true? Both short stories explore what it means to suffer, and what may be the cause of such discontent. Kafka and O’Connor seem to make a particular point in relative suffering to want.…

    • 176 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, many themes are present that add to the complexity of the story. He explores the potential dangers of pursuing self-knowledge, the question of guilt and innocence, and the nature of fate. Throughout this journey, the characters undergo major transformations. Everything from how they see themselves and those around them, to the actions they take. Oedipus had the most drastic and noticeable change of all.…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is the most important quality of an honorable leader? In The Odyssey, Odysseus is looked upon as an admirable leader for his accomplishment. While reading this epic, the majority people can notice some characteristics that a leader needs to possess. Odysseus shows multiple positive character traits, but the most important one is persistence. Persistence is the main factor of telling a good leader from a bad one because without it you have no way of solving any solution.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Odysseus: Son of Pain In Homer 's The Odyssey, a king, Alcinous, urges the protagonist, Odysseus, "Come, tell us the name they call you there at home [...] Surely no man is nameless [...] as soon as he sees the light his parents always name him, once he 's born" (209 • 618-622). Odysseus 's name, in fact, carries great significance. It means "son of pain," and through the course of the poem, the reader can understand how fitting this name is for this character.…

    • 1457 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oedipus the King was written by Sophocles, who was famous drama writers in ancient Athens in fifth century B.C.E. Sophocles held the idea of the unity and close relationship of society and the governor of the state. He described Oedipus as a king who feels responsibility for his people’s future, for homeland and he is ready to find a resolution that can help to stop the plaque in Thebes. Sophocles tries to show the human desire to control their own life by their own accord. Sophocles believed, even though a person cannot avoid the troubles “predicted by the gods”, but the cause of these problems is the nature of the person, which is shown by the person’s actions.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Theme Of Arrogance In Oedipus

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 6 Works Cited

    A Commentary On The Plays Of Sophocles. Southern Illinois University Press, 1991. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 31 Mar. 2012. Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Giola.…

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 6 Works Cited
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many people believe that they achieve the ultimate understanding of things in the universe, until they found the “truth”. In Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex, the limit of human understanding and Oedipus’ rational form of investigation into his father’s murder clearly marked the limit line of human condition. In the play, Oedipus is living in his fantasy where he just starts to awake. In his fantasy world, he believes that he has total control over his fate and identity. He thinks that he has three virtues: reason, intelligence, and self-control.…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This past weekend I went to view Southern Miss’s Trojan Barbie. This play was an amazing display of the range of talent in Southern Miss’s theatre department. As I stepped through the doors of Tatum Theatre, I was transported back to Ancient Troy. Along with the set, the preshow soundtrack made me excited for the play that I was about to see. When the lights dimmed and the play began, soldiers walked out from the vomitoriums and surrounded audience members.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The doubled-edged sword of excessive amour-propre better known as pride, is liable to stab those who posses it when they least anticipate the injury. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. the wound that he was initially numb to became prevalent as the sequence of events took a turn for the worst. Due to his hubris, King Oedipus’ fall from grace was the least bit graceful. It is evident that he suffers with hubristic pride, which according to Jessica L. Tracy and Richard W. Robins can be interpreted as “having one’s passions cluster around the ego”.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Describe Laertes In Hamlet

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 1.3 Polonius and Laertes are talking to Ophelia ,are giving her advice, and Laertes says “Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well What i have said to you. ”(83-84), he is reveals who he a very caring person. He wants his things to be good. Hearing that his father was dead in 4.5 he was impatient Laertes says to the king “O thou vile king, Give me my father!”(115-116), he is made as he says this part, and shows more aggression towards the king. He adapts a different mood in each scene.…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Annotated Bibliography Working Thesis: In the complex and intertwined themes of the revenge tragedy, Hamlet, William Shakespeare effectively expresses what it means to be human through Hamlet’s struggle to explore the human conditions of mortality, deception and morality, social expectations, and contemplation versus impulsive actions. MacNamara, Vincent. “The Human Condition.” The Call to be Human: Making Sense of Morality.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Once Oedipus was out of the picture so many things have happened over time. Creon becomes the new king of Thebes after both princes have died. Eteocles and Polyneices were killed by each other's hands and only Eteocles was given a proper burial. There is a new law that is being enforced: No one shall bury the traitor Polyneices, anyone who buries Polyneices will be punished. Antigone hears the new law but, she immediately acts on it.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Oh, Ohhh - the agony! I am agony - where am I going where on earth?where does all this agony hurl me? where’s my voice? - winging, swept away on a dark tide - My destiny, my dark power, what a leap you made!”(line 1444-1449) these are the words spoken by a king now broken in his darkest hour. In the play Oedipus The King, written by Sophocles, Oedipus represents the tragic theme that making rash decisions without reason and overstepping one’s limits to defy those of superior status can cause suffering to not only oneself but those around them. Oedipus, through bringing a plague upon his people, condemning himself to a life of misery, and dooming his family to lives of shame and grisly deaths, acts as the great conductor of doom for the people of the city of Thebes.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Duties and Responsibilities “Missing the Mark” Many of the causes which formed Troy Maxson into the dishonest person he is in August Wilson’s play, “Fences”. Troy had an unpleasant childhood in which he grew up with a very abusive father, who not only beat him on a daily basis, but also his mother deserted him at the age of eight years old. In the play, Troy lies habitually and tries to cover himself by accusing others of the same act of lying. His dream of becoming a major league baseball player was crushed as a result of his time spent in jail. By the time he was released from jail, he was too old to play baseball efficiently.…

    • 2039 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics