From my previous journal I stated that I was very interested in finishing the rest of the Odyssey books. Well, I finished them all and got some of my questions answered in class and even got some questions answered that I didn't know I didn't understand. In book 4 I stopped wondering why Athena protects Telemachus when she is still angry. When you finish the rest of the Odyssey there are many things that happen. You have everything to do; "all the gods accept that Poseidon met again on Mount Olympus to discuss the fate of Odysseus" in book 5. A "Athena makes the Ithacans forget the massacre of their children and recognizes Odysseus as king, and restores peace" in book 24. How one man goes through all of this is amazing to me. The Odyssey is nothing other than Ulysses telling us his story and all the things he went through. Odysseus encounters many things that people don't believe to be true because his entire crew is dead and no one has ever done anything like what he says he did. Since his crew is dead, there is no one to help them tell all the great adventures they loved. The main question that I feel is never really answered while reading is whether or not the stories are true. Does it really take 20 years for someone who loves their family to return home? To return to his wife and son? And his wife and son are still there waiting for his return. We know from reading that they are, but how does he know? Is it because it was like that then or why? Because it took him seven years to build a boat to leave the Cyclops' island and start returning home. When he finally gets the boat to...middle of paper......I keep saying this but I really don't know whether he withers or not, I can take this story as true, I have some things of things could have happened but not all. I don't know why I find this so hard to believe, but I do. Reflecting on this reading I really stopped to think about what I'm reading and whether I believe it to be true or not. Could the Odyssey be written differently so that it is more understandable? Or should we already be able to understand the text? I feel like the book could take a whole semester to cover, we should actually take the time to actually read it, not just read it and move on. I see myself rereading the books and trying to understand more and looking for things I missed the first time. Works Cited Brian Wilkie, J.H. (2001). Literature of the Western World vol. 1. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. The Odyssey, pages 273-594