So i've got the final draft of my English essay due on Monday, I was wondering if anyone here wanted to voice their opinion on it? The essay is comparing the two works of "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood and The Odyssey by Homer. The prompt for the essay was as follows: How does the poem change the meaning of a specific meaning of The Odyssey and why. I connected the poem and The Odyssey by connecting the Sirens of Margaret Atwood's "Siren Song" with hard laboring women. This is my essay, please reply with any edits or suggestions!:
(Name)
(Teacher name)
English 9
25 January 2019
The Connection of Women and Sirens
The Odyssey, an epic poem by Homer, and “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood, two pieces of linked literature. “Siren Song” elaborates on The
Odyssey’s sirens, creatures trapped on an island who bewitch passing by sailors with their seductive song that ends in their own demise. In The
Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, sets out on a journey home and encounters these sirens. The sirens attempt to lure Odysseus and his
sailors into listening to their deceitful voices, but Odysseus inherits a plan from Circe to block that from happening. Margaret Atwood is a known
literary genius of her time, and has published over thirty books, which allowed her to be able to get the insight to edit a famous passage of
Homer’s The Odyssey. Margaret Atwood is also “a pioneer of contemporary feminism”, standing up for women’s rights, influencing her connection
of the siren’s and women in “Siren Song”. In “Siren Song”, Margaret Atwood shows an extension of women through the portrayal of sirens and
their hardships. The text of “Siren Song” is important because it is the only time,other than the one chapter in The Odyssey, where the sirens are
mentioned. Word choice, tone, and tension play important roles in the transformation of text between “Siren Song” and The Odyssey by changing
the meanings of the siren’s appearance from arrogant to deceptive good will for the purpose of showing the sirens as metaphors for hard laboring
women in The Odyssey.
Word choice was consistently used by the sirens in order to portray their importance unlike the importance women lack in The Odyssey at the
same time keeping the attention towards the “lucky” sailors. The siren’s are always using words with a double meaning in order to convey the
sailor’s auspiciousness and get them excited to either listen to the song or go towards the sirens. Specifically, “Only you, only you can, you are
unique” (l. 23-24). The sirens use seductive language like “only you” to captivate the sailor’s attention. The sailors are so easily captivated and
amused because of the attention that they receive. Since they’ve lacked attention over the years at sea it had made them less aware of deceit.
In that situation the siren’s used word choice in order to make the sailors feel good about themselves, but they also use it to empower themselves
in order to deepen the sailor’s investment with a false sense of auspiciousness and attempt to make up for the empowerment women lack. “I
don’t enjoy it here squatting on this island looking picturesque and mythical.” (l. 13-15). Here the sirens use the terms “picturesque” and
“mythical” in order to keep the sailors in check, making sure they know that not only they are lucky to and happy having attention but also that
the sirens are the ones with the power. The siren’s specifically use the words in order to show the sailors what they’ve been mistreating these
almost fictional beautiful women. Women were only viewed for their beautifulness, and once they married they would be forced into their
stereotypical labor. The sirens specifically use “Picturesque” and “Mythical” to describe themselves to make their presence known, unlike the
women’s presence which was left ignored. The word choice used by the sirens was one of many ways that they were able to fool many sailors into
listening to their song and paying for their crimes against women throughout The Odyssey.
While word choice was effective for gaining the sailors attention, tone was the real breakaway for letting the sirens force the sailors into
doing what they asked. When the sirens say, “Alas it is a boring song, but it works every time.” (l. 25-27) they are using the effects of frankness
and forcefulness in order to make the sailors understand that they will inevitably fall for their song. The sirens are being frank by admitting to the
fact that their song is deceitful, and are being forceful because they make the bold statement that it “works every time”. Even though the sirens
are repetitively doing the action of using luring/seductive words it is important in this scenario because they are almost “twisting the hand” of the
sailors, making them feel like they’ll only be stalling the inevitable if they don’t listen to the sirens now. This is extremely relevant to relationship
of hardworking women and sirens. While the men would go off to war, the mistreated women would typically inherit all of the belongings of the
man once they die. Throughout all that time the women are forced to do menial house tasks, that simply diminish their confidence and make
them think that they are doing a pointless task (Which is true). The sirens yet again force their tone by stating , “Never has any sailor passed our
shores in his black craft until he heard our honeyed voices.” (XII: 202-203). In The Odyssey, Homer utilities tone to not only crush the sailors
wishes of passing by, but it also attempts to lure them in with the usage of “honeyed voices”. Specifically, “honeyed” is used in order to create a
sense of safety and at the same time a pull, in order to make them give into the song. Atwood does this is order to show that the sirens (or
women) are pushing back the same feeling that men did onto them. By showing to the sailors that they are miniscule compared to the sirens, it
gives the sirens importance. This importance gives the sirens a relatability to women, making them as an extension of themselves raining fear
and killing self-righteous women oppressing men. Tone was an important factor for depressing (yet also cruelty breaking down)the confidence of
the men, something they frequented upon women. However tension was a large contributing factor in depressing their mentalities.
Tension was manipulatively used by the sirens in order to play with the sailor’s minds, and cripple their normal reactions a warrior would have to
obvious deceitful events like the ones playing out currently. Similar to how men used their bouldering masculinity to manipulate and entrap the
women at the house, doing maids work. The sirens attempt to manipulate yet again, “Shall I tell you the secret and if I do, will you get me out of
this bird suit?” (l. 10-12). The sirens attempting to yet again lure in the sailors into a trap. However, Margaret Atwood utilizes the “secret” in
order to fool the sailors into getting the siren out of the “bird suit”. Using the word “secret” the sirens add a mysterious ambiguity to the “secret”,
making the sailors want to do anything for the sirens in order to find out what the “secret’ is. This increases the tension, because the sailors are
inherently “dying” in order to find out the secret (However by finding out the secret they’ll be dead anyway). The bird suit, which is a metaphor
for the sirens/women being stuck in their positions, is directly linked to the sirens being stuck on the island and women being stuck in their
household tasks. The sirens who are constantly asking for “help” from the sailors are opposite to women in this scenario. Women, who were stuck
in their household positions, never had the opportunity to quit their household tasks. While Margaret Atwood utilizes tension in order to stress the
importance of hidden meanings, Homer utilities tension to show the significance of actions or events. When Homer states, “ So they sent their
ravishing voices out across the air.” (XII: 208) he is using tension with the word “ravishing” in order to increase the significance of the sirens
voices. The word “ravishing” is tense itself because of its intensity. This makes the sirens seem more important than they should and by using the
word “Ravishing” Homer shows the fear installed inside of the sailors. The ravishing voices indirectly connects with Margaret Atwood’s women,
because the ravishing voice can be perceived as the screams of agony and pain of the women. The screams of the sirens come from the
repetitiveness that women endure, doing the same work over and over again day after day with next to no meaning.
The sirens, overall, were direct extensions of the women in The Odyssey and the women throughout Margaret Atwood’s time. The things Margaret
Atwood experienced were obviously important, important enough to push her to become a contemporary feminist. However, since Margaret
Atwood grew up strong, she was likely able to handle snide remarks and injustices done towards her sex (Unlike other women at the time). The
sirens would use many of the same elements of deceit used by their own men to deceive weary sailors passing by. This direct correlation of
mistreatment of women is an important view to hold. It is important because it shows that not only did Margaret Atwood (A pioneer of
contemporary feminism) knew about the injustices that women held, but Homer did too. Homer not only expressed this mistreatment with the
sirens, but used it throughout the book with Penelope. Homer portrayed the mistreatment of Penelope through the agonies and stress she
suffered over the twenty years waiting for Odysseus to return. Margaret Atwood was also able to view these obvious injustices in her time, opting
to become a feminist and even correlate her education and a classic writing like The Odyssey. In conclusion, the sirens are portrayed as direct
extensions of women's un-accounted pains, stress, and abuse from men throughout their time period through word choice, tone, and tension.
Works Cited
“Atwood, Margaret”. Facts On File Companion to the British Novel: 20th Century, vol.2
Atwood, Margaret. “Siren Song.” Selected Poems. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975.
Homer. “The Odyssey”. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Group, 1996
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