Magical creatures in magical lands offer a story like no other. The epic poem The Odyssey by Homer and the film The Wizard of Oz by Victor Fleming, both focus on a heroic main character struggling to get home. The Wizard of Oz presents Dorothy Gale as the savior for her new friends and local residents of Oz. The Odyssey does the same, illustrating Odysseus as the savior for his crew, as well as his family in Ithaca. Dorothy and Odysseus share many different character traits that depict heroism, however, they have many different approaches to achieving their goal of going home. Dorothy and Odysseus share some similarities of heroism. For example, they both are depicted as brave, loyal, and determined. Dorothy is brave because she stands up …show more content…
One difference is their tragic flaw. Dorothy’s tragic flaw is that she is defenseless, she relies on the help of others to get along. An example of this is when she's walking down the yellow brick road and gets attacked by the apple trees and the witch. She has her friends fight them off instead of doing it himself. She also is afraid of the lion at first and is defenseless against him when they encounter him in the forest(Fleming). Odysseus’ tragic flaw is his display of hubris, or excessive pride. An example of this is when Odysseus yells his name to the cyclops, revealing his identity, which led to Poseidon making it a harder journey home for him(IX.558-562). Another difference amongst the two is that Dorothy is more responsible than Odysseus. Dorothy grows responsible for her friends as the story unfolds. Dorothy's friends are not able to care for themselves because they are all missing a key component of their body so she helps them until they get it. Odysseus is not as responsible as her. This is shown in the part where he doesn't tell his crew what is in the bag of winds and it backfires when they open it to find out and it releases all the winds and it creates a huge storm that slows down their journey home(X.52-54). Even though it may seem like Dorothy and Odysseus have many traits in common when it comes to acting as a hero, they are different from each other in many ways. Dorothy