DIALETICAL NOTES

While reading the Odyssey, you will keep a dialectical journal. A dialectical journal is used to arrive at the “truth” of a written work through the written response to quotations from that work. The journal is meant to help your understanding of the epic as you read through it.
Your dialectical journal will include entries on themes, symbols, motifs, and literary devices. Your task will be to identify the themes, symbols, motifs, and literary devices as you read, offering commentary on them.
Themes:
1. Cunning and guile can be both an asset and detriment in our life journey.
2. Family, and the bonds it creates, is the ultimate prize in a person’s life.
3. Temptation beckons humanity at every turn, and our resistance to it reveals the type of person we are.
4. The ability to control one’s arrogance and hubris is a life-long battle humanity must wage to better ourselves.
Motifs:
a. Story Telling/Lying
b. Battles (both literal and figurative)
Symbols:
I. Food
II. Disguises
III.Weaponry
IV.The Wedding Bed
Literary Devices:
AA. Epic Simile- a simile that is expansive over many lines.
BB. Epithets- a term or phrase used to characterize the nature of a character, object, or event.
Example: “Rosy-fingered dawn.”
CC. Catalogs- long lists (in this case, of heroes and villains)
Archetypes/Hero’s Journey:
Refer to your Cornell Notes on Archetypes and the Hero’s Journey for these entries. Sample Dialectical Journal
Evidence (quotation and context) Analysis – Commentary
Quotation: “‘Cyclops, / you ask my honorable name? Remember / the gift you promised me, and I shall tell you. / My name is Nohbdy” (270-274).
Context: Theme 1; Motif a.
Odysseus conceals his identify by telling the
Cyclops that his name is “Nohbdy.”
Changing his name is a way to conceal identity, a practice used by Odysseus to outwit the beast. The ease with which
Odysseus comes up with this lie is both brilliant and terrifying because the habit of lying seems almost inconsequential to our protagonist. Requirements
You will read 15 books from The Odyssey. Your will have 12 total entries by the due date. You need to divide your entries into the following:
• Theme/Motifs: 3 Entries Required
• Symbols: 3 Entries Required
• Literary Devices: 3 Entries Required
• Archetypes/Hero’s Journey: 3 Entries Required
Divide the entries evenly over the thirteen books. Roughly one fourth of the entries should come from each section of the readings. (Books 1, 9, 11, 12/ Books 14, 15, 16/ Books 17, 18, 19, 20, 21/Books
22, 23, 24)
You will be provided further details will on the Dialectical Journal Rubric.
Due Date:
Due date for this assignment is on December 4, 2013. This will count as a test grade, and any late entries (not in by beginning of period) will have the deduction designated by the department late policy. Printing your work is your responsibility.