The Odyssey<span> and the poem "Siren Song" both portray sirens; however, in </span>The Odyssey, the focus is on resolving the "problem" of the sirens, no differently than any other obstacle on his journey, whereas "Siren Song" focuses on the siren as more than merely an obstacle. They share, however, the preying of the siren upon hubris and the desire to be special, as well as, by what happens, illustrating the allure of the sirens in spite of the pain that may be suffered to get there.
The Odyssey<span> initially describes the actions of Odysseus much more than the sirens. The beginning discussion does not describe the sirens at all; it merely states that they were approaching the island of the sirens, and then for the first ten lines it does not even begin to consider the sirens. Instead, the text talks about the actions of Odysseus, who "sliced an ample wheel of beeswax [...] and I stopped the ears of my comrades one by one." Indeed, the only understanding of the sirens comes from their speech; this perspective originates from </span><span>The Odyssey's </span><span>point of view. Unlike "Siren Song," </span>The Odyssey<span> focuses on the person who opposes the sirens, Odysseus, more than the sirens themselves. This leads to the Sirens lacking any special quality that would make them any different than any other obstacle - there is nothing personal about them. This is in contrast to "Siren Song, " which focuses almost exclusively on the siren. The point of view is of the siren rather than Odysseus; the differing point of view leads to a differing focus.</span>
<span>Despite this differing focus in point of view, the two poems illustrate very similar themes. Firstly, they illustrate the allure of being a hero when one has hubris. In </span>The Odyssey<span>, the Siren's play up Odysseus' ego, calling him "Achaea's pride and glory!" Similarly, the sirens ask the victim to "help me!" similarly enhancing the victim's ego by the expression of being a damsel in distress who requires a hero (whether Odysseus or any other sailor) to save her.. The sirens also use an emphasis on the uniqueness of the victim to enhance the appeal to the victim's hubris. The sirens appeal to Odysseus in </span>The Odyssey<span> by proclaiming that "never has any sailor passed our shores," demonstrating that Odysseus would be the first (and therefore worthy of note); similarly, in "Siren Song," the sirens say that "only you, only you can [help me] / you are unique," emphasizing the person's separation from the typical and mundane both by the statement that the person is special as well as the repetition of the pronoun "you," which, in the singular, separates the listener from any others. Thus, the sirens use similar strategy in both poems.</span>
Finally, the outcome for the sailor is the same, although differing in degree: the allure of the siren causes pain. Odysseus has to be bound "faster with rope on chafing rope," the tactile imagery of which illustrates the pain of Odysseus. This same pain is experienced by the victim in the other poem, illustrated by the shift between "you are unique" and "at last" that implies that the victim was eaten. In both cases, the sirens were sufficiently alluring to cause the sailor to want to seek them, and in both cases the sailor experiences pain, albeit that Odysseus, due to his intellect, only experiences chafing rope rather than death. Thus do the sirens result in similar outcomes for anyone they attempt to seduce, and the only thing that varies with their extent of success is not the outcome itself, but rather the degree of it.
<span>The two poems portray sirens from entirely different perspectives. </span>The Odyssey<span> focuses on them from the perspective of a hero, thus making them equivalent to an inhuman obstacle, essentially de-personifying them, whereas "Siren Song" focuses on them from the perspective of the sirens themselves. In both cases, however, the tactics of appealing to the desire to be a hero and the result of pain for the victim who attempts to be a hero are the same. Despite the differing points of view, the ultimate portrayal of the Sirens are the same. I hope this helped!</span>
The sentence that best paraphrases the first sentence of the excerpt is "You aren't telling me anything I don't know". This is because the narrator uses the metaphor of "rousing me from a deep sleep" as saying that he was aware of the situation that was going on, it wasn't that he didn't know about it.
The kind of childhood you had, past traumas, recent experiences of failure or rejection, loneliness, social anxiety, negative beliefs about yourself, perfectionism, or having a critical parent or partner can all contribute to insecurity.
I inferred you are referring to the Nigerian born writer Chimamanda Adichie's account found here (https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en).
<u>Explanation:</u>
Remember, in Adichie's talk she said referring to Fide, "the only thing my mother told me was that his family was very poor."
Later after she saw the basket fide's brother made she said "it had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something". This stereotyped view expressed in her words above complements the story of her college roommate’s stereotyped view of Adichie when she said, "she asked where I learned to speak English so well,....she had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. My roommate had a single of Africa; in this single-story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way."
Indeed, her talk would have had a different impact without the story of Fide and his family, considering the fact that this was a real-life story so it made the best impact.