First Name Last Name
Ms. Hanson
Language Arts 8
December 18, 2013
Women in The Adventures of Ulysses: Desperate for a Diamond Ring, Desperate for a Man
The Adventures of Ulysses, by Bernard Evslin, is the story of Ulysses—a captain and expert
strategist—and his great efforts and adventures as he tries to make his way home. In the novel Ulysses’
character is developed in detail; however, the women in the story are flat and undeveloped characters.
The novel portrays women in stereotypical ways; however, women—powerful and evil or innocent and
pure—are determined to have a husband.
There are countless examples of powerful women who will stop at nothing to get their way;
despite all the power they have, they want nothing more than a husband. Circe and Calypso are two
women that Ulysses meets on his journey. Although he meets them at separate times in the novel, they
are strikingly similar. When Calypso finds Ulysses in the ocean, she immediately takes him home and
prepares him for their wedding. She explains that he can never leave her, saying, “As for your departure,
that will never be” (108). Similarly, when Circe finds Ulysses, she tells him she wants him to stay
forever. These two powerful women still are portrayed to want nothing more than a man.
Penelope, the pure and beautiful wife, has been waiting for him for over twenty years. She has
remained faithful and thinks about Ulysses constantly. Men pursue her and she says she cannot be with
them until she finishes her weaving. She never finishes her weaving because “each night she rips up the
work she has done by day, so the shroud is never finished” (116). While Ulysses is off living an
adventurous life and having several affairs, Penelope seems to be able to do nothing more than weave and
wait for her long-lost husband.
The Siren sisters are two additional key female characters, and one might object that they were not
interested in finding a husband; however, their entire life is spent waiting for shipwrecked sailors. The
sisters lure men with their beautiful voices and then “flay them and make drums of their skin and flutes of
their bones” (77). Ulysses is a strong and brave man, yet when he heared their voices, “He was filled with
such a fury of desire that he swelled his mighty muscles, burst the rawhide bonds like thread, and dashed
for the rail” (88). They may not have been waiting to marry, but they were waiting on a man.
The Adventures of Ulysses may seem like an old and outdated tale, but it is not far from how
media still portrays women. Mascara advertisements promise women that their eyelashes will be so
beautiful no man will be able to resist, not unlike the siren sisters and their beautiful voices. Jewelry
commercials say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, implying that a woman will find her happiness
with a diamond ring and a wedding, not far from how Circe and Calypso feel. Finally, when Ulysses and
Penelope are separated, Ulysses keeps on living, but Penelope’s life stops when she is not with him,
depicting women as incomplete without their husbands. Media and literature need to stop reinforcing
theses harmful and untrue stereotypes of women.
Conclusions - See below for helpful hints.
The conclusion is a good place to not only sum up the points made in the paper but to suggest the
further implications of your argument. You do not want to simply reiterate the points you have made in
your introduction, thesis, or body paragraphs. Instead, use the analyses that you have already
presented to ask questions, or suggest the possible next logical step in the argument. You want to make
sure that the claims you make in the conclusion are not too far-fetched or wildly out of step with the
rest of your paper. The conclusion should be the final step in the progression of your argument.
Assignment: Identify the following on the example essay. Make sure you clearly label each part.



Introduction
o Introduce novel and author
o Brief Synopsis
o Introduce topic/subject
o Thesis statement
Body paragraphs - Each body paragraph should
o Have a topic sentence.
o Break down the thesis
o Have examples from text
o Include textual evidence w/
 “Page number” (88).
 “Quotation marks”
 Incorporated in your own
sentence
Final body paragraph
o Counter-argument
o Rebuttal
o Textual evidence

Conclusion paragraph
o Sum up points
o Further implications of
argument