Elias, 9

Kelton Elias
12/11/18
Gardner, G block
So, Are They Really Guilty?

After reading the biased story of the Odyssey, readers often wonder what else happened

in the story that they are not aware of. TIn the book The Penelopiad, by Margret Atwood tells

the story of the Odyssey from Penelope’s perspective. The book starts off with the sad

background of Penelope and how her father attempts to drown her; although the story focusses

on Penelope, the mMaids appeared a lot in the book, expressing their feelings. Even though the

mMaids were are killed because of their disloyalty to Odysseus,, it can be shown through the

story, based on evidence throughout the story that they were just following the maids were

following Penelope’s orders. Throughout the rest of the book, the mMaids have their part in

saying their opinion in order to gain justice. In the Penelopiad, the mMaids do not achieve

justice due to their lack of social power and loyal people to listen to their opinion.

Despite the maid's effort, they were not able to achieve justice over Odysseus' attempt to

remain innocent. The mMaids lack of social power stood in their way of gaining justice in the

Penelopiad because they had no one that cared about them. The way the Suitors treated the

mMaids sexually and verbally dehumanized them, placing them at the bottom of the totem

polelowering them to the bottom of the social class. To this, Penelope’s only argument was that

the suitors raped them without Odysseus’ permission, therefore making it wrong. "Once more we

toil and slave, and hoist our skirts at their command" (126). The maid’s position there makes it

harder for the mMaids to gain any recognition from anyone, even from Penelope. Since Penelope
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instructed the mMaids to act as if they were on the Suitors side without considering the

consequences, they ended up dying still in the end.

Along with having a poor social power comes a lack of loyalty from anyone, even people

like Penelope who the Maids knew since they were all little kids. Due these disadvantages, the

Maids lacked people who they could trust to keep them safe.

The mMaids do not have loyal friends, so for this reason, they try hard to help get the

reader to feel sympathy for them. They feel that by this so that in order to gain positive opinions

towards them due to the lack of loyalty from friends. The maid’s unfortunate position at the

bottom of the social ladder tter leaves them without no friends they can trust. or loyal people

they can trust. Luckily, they still have each other to provide emotional support when in

challenging situations and dehumanizing circumstances such as the incidents of rape that

occurred come in hand, for instance, when the suitors come to rape them. Because ofDue to their

lack of loyal people that have a higher social standing, the mMaids didn’t have the right to

complain to Penelope about how the suitors treat them. This The maid’s lack of being able to

share their difficulties, putsthey are put the Maids in a situation that allows other people to do

whatever they please to them without getting in trouble. The Maids made it important to gain

justice although it never ended up happening.Although the maids made it important to gain

justice, their attempts came through as fruitless. "We demand justice! We demand retribution!

We invoke the law of blood guilt!"(183). The mMaids saw this as a problem and used the

Penelopiad as a way to complain and express their problems. The maids used the

The mMaids worked hard to gain justice over Odysseus throughout the book only for it to

end without success. After clearing their minds, the mMaids did end up achieving something

through the book even though it wasn’t something as big as justice. Using the Penelopiad the
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mMaids gained a positive relationship with the reader along with sympathy to help put the reader

in their shoes. The story of the mMaids is similarcan relate to the way some men treat women in

the present day. Women that have been sexually mistreated are slowly beginning to gain justice

by speaking out and parting right from wrong. ThisExpressing opinions and thoughts about

sexism is something the mMaids could have done to prevent the suitors mistreating them before

having their lives taken away from them.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Penelopiad. Edinburgh: Canongate Books Ltd, 2005. Print.