Bias in Storytelling

In Book 9 of the Odyssey, Odysseus narrates his journey from Circes to the island housing the Cyclopes. There, he meets what he calls a giant, barbaric Cyclops who eats his men and stops him from going home. In retaliation, Odysseus tricks the Cyclops, and heroically stabs the giant in the eye before leaving the cave under the Cyclops's flock of sheep.

From his narration, the Cyclops Polyphemus does seem brutish and cruel, and Odysseus valiant and clever, yet, upon a closer reading of Odysseus's tale, there is no evidence that backs up Odysseus's claim, and it appears that Odysseus may be exaggerating and lying about the Cyclopes and about his own actions. Therefore, his narration should be read more carefully to understand what really happened on the island.

Size

"Look what a dwarf, a spineless good-for-nothing, stuns me with wine, then gouges out my eye!"

Professor Giannopolou compares Odysseys as the Cyclops' other, and vice versa. One way in which they are rivals is the size difference between them. Odysseus observes that the Cyclops is a giant, monstrous brute. The Cyclops treats the men as food, and easily crushes and devours them full. However, Odysseus, despite being small, defeats the Cyclops through deceit. While the Cyclops is big in body, Odysseus is big in intelligence. From Odysseus's point of view, he is the better one, because intelligence triumphs over size.

From Odysseus's accounts, it's easy to dismiss the Cyclops as a stupid giant who terrorizes the men. Yet, Odysseus contradicts his own words. The Cyclops cannot be a simple brute, for he raises his own flock of sheep, makes his own cheese, and is clearly in contact with his neighbors who know his name. Yet, the image of a barbaric giant is more sensational, and helps Odysseus move the Phaeacians to accept his view, the one which makes Odysseus as a small man triumphing over the hideous giant, as correct.

Big is Scary?

Part of what makes the Cyclops scary is his size. Odysseus demonizes the Cyclops based on this physical appearance, and yet his reaction is similar to that of Victor Frankenstein to his creation.

In Frankenstein, Victor is obsessed with the idea of creating life, but once he animates a non-living being into a living state, he quickly regrets his actions and villainizes his creation, popularly known as Frankenstein's monster. He never gives it a name, only calling him "wretched," and declaring him evil because, among other things, his unnaturally tall stature.

Frankenstein disdains the monster as absolutely evil. Yet, when the two meet up on the mountains, his creation gives his story of why he is evil. From his story, we learn that Frankenstein's creation was alone, never accepted by humans because of his appearance. And yet, he finds a family with whom he empathized with, and felt a sort of love for them.

From the monster's account, it seems he's not really a monster at all. He has an innate sense of empathy and only turned evil because no one gave him a chance at love. And yet, Frankenstein is never convinced and reviles his creation in front of Robert Walton, a scientist who finds Victor while in pursuit of the monster, and remains scornful up until his death.

Both Odysseus and Frankenstein convince their audience of his own righteousness and the evil of the one he condemns. Odysseus gets the help of the Phaeacians and Frankenstein moves Walton to help him destroy the monster. Unlike Odysseus, Frankenstein dies with his loved ones dead and an eternal hatred for his creation, while Odysseus manages to escape and return to his journey home.

For his unfair convictions against the monster, it appears that Frankenstein received karmic punishment for his actions. While Odysseus manages to escape the Cyclops, karma still follows Odysseus on sea, as he faces the wrath of Poseidon for tormenting the God's son.

Pride

Here is Odysseus, the leader of his crew, taunting the blinded Cyclops. He and his men successfully escaped the Cyclops, and was far enough that it wouldn't hear them row, but Odysseus couldn't resist boasting in front of the Cyclops, even giving it his name. This allowed the Cyclops to pray for Posideon, which swept Odysseus's crew away.

Although he likes to praise himself as cunning and intelligent, one of his flaws is his pride. He couldn't resist boasting in front of his enemy, and so carelessly revealed his true name. However, as much as the Cyclops underestimated Odysseus, Odysseus in turn underestimated the Cyclops, and used his info to tell Poseidon who to terrorize in retribution. Even the supposedly cunning Odysseus still makes leaps in judgement.

Establishing a legacy

One reason Odysseus revealed his name to his foe was to literally establish a name for himself, to gain status as somebody who should be feared. Wanting to leave a legacy is exactly what Randle McMurphy wanted in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. McMurphy was admitted to a mental hospital essentially controlled by the cold Nurse Ratchet. He convinces his fellow patients to stand up for themselves and take back control of their lives from the oppressive institution.

Near the end of the story, McMurphy has the chance to escape, but just a little earlier one of their friends committed suicide after Nurse Ratchet threatened to tell his mother how he was a sexual deviant. McMurphy realized that if he left, none of the patients would have something to stand for, and they would return to submission under Nurse Ratchet's control. So, he instead punches Nurse Ratchet down and chokes her, intending to kill her, until the other staff knock him down.

This martyrdom unfortunately leads to his lobotomy, and he remains a vegetable until Chief Bromden, one of his closest friends, kills him to end his suffering. Yet, this act of sacrifice inspires the other patients that they don't need to listen to the staff. Some of them leave legally, and Chief Bromden breaks a window and escapes under the darkness.

McMurphy left behind a legacy for his patients-- that they can stand up for themselves and don't need to listen to what the supposed authority tells them to do. Now looking at Odysseus, his pride seems highly more egocentric. McMurphy sacrificed his freedom for the freedom of his friends, yet Odysseus risked not only his life, but his crew's, in the hopes that it will establish himself as a fearsome warrior. And this is despite his claim the the Cyclopes are loners, who wouldn't spread the message far from their island anyway.

The main point is that pride isn't inherently a bad thing. McMurphy sacrificed himself partly because he didn't want to seem cowardly, to take the easy way out and save himself, yet this stemmed from how he cares about the other patients. Odysseus was purely selfish. He could have sailed free as the Cyclops was too far away to hurl the boulders, and he was still under the impression that Outis is his real name. Yet, due to his own arrogance, he made his journey home infinitely harder by incurring the wrath of Poseidon.

Xenia

The last interesting topic was the perspective about who broke xenia. Odysseus believes he's entitled to xenia. As he tells his story, he frames himself as the guest and the Cyclops as his host, who ends up killing his men and violating the rules of xenia (e.g, asking for their name without giving them a meal, and praying for his journey home to be perilous).

However, Odysseus also ignored the rules of xenia. He enters the Cyclops' cave without permission and stole his cheese. Then, he gives him a "gift" of wine for the purpose of subduing the Cyclops and stabbing his eye. From the Cyclops's perspective, Odysseus is the interloper who stole his food and blinded him. In other words, the Cyclops was the victim and Odysseus is the intruder.

The perspectives between Odysseus and the Cyclops demonstrate how a story can change/differ depending on the person who tells it. It's not enough to get one side that says one thing; it's necessary to get both sides to accurately determine what happened and who is at fault. However, telling the truth is not Odysseus's priority. He wants to entertain the Phaeacians with a story of drama, evil, and heroic justice, in the hopes that they will help him get home to Ithaca, so he naturally skews the story to paint him as the victim who triumphs under the barbaric Cyclops. Thus, it's important to also know why someone is telling a story, as in many cases, like in the case of Odysseus, his desire to return home is vastly superior than his desire to tell the truth.

Reflection:

I aim to be a factory of ideas that takes in a jumble of ideas, good and bad, flatten and process them, and send them out so that they're refined and insightful. Right now, my capabilities are limited, as I have a limited amount of equipment and not enough power to keep the factory running. I hope that, the more I write, the more I'll refine my ideas and writing to produce a page full of eloquent analysis.

I like connecting ideas I read to books or other media I've consumed in the past. On my page, I hope I can display a wide array of media, no matter how obscure, from the past to the present. If there's anything I like more, it's seeing some little reference to a book, movie, or game I really like somewhere wildy unexpected.