Q3 benchmark: The Odyssey Compare/Contrast Essay

       Chucha took care of a high middle class family who had to hide from a governmental agency called the SIM. She kept her family motivated to get away from this way of living. She spoke to people leaving hints about the future in a way that her family had to unravel the meaning of what she said. “You will fly free like the butterflies Anita.” (Chapter 3) Chucha is telling Anita that she will escape the treatment of the SIM soon. Anita, the little girl in the story, asked Chucha to promise not to tell anyone about the blood in her sister Lucinda’s bed from her menstrual cycle. Chucha kept her promise and covered up the evidence; She washed the sheets and had all of the blood out of them. Likewise, Eurycleia took care of a wealthy and royal family who was waiting for a family member to return home. She stayed loyal to Odysseus while he went out to sea. Eurycleia promised Odysseus that she would not tell anybody in the house that Odysseus was dressed as the old beggar. “Child… What nonsense you let slip through your teeth! You know me- I am stubborn, never give an inch. I’ll keep still as a solid rock or iron...” (Book 19, lines 555-558). Eurycleia and Chucha families look up to them and trust them with all of their secrets, and they know what is best for their family. They are also adept wise and lived along time so they are very knowledgeable. Both Eurycleia and Chucha are also treated with more respect and courtesy than the other servants are and maids in the house.

       Chucha has her way of speaking in riddles or in a puzzling way where in order to understand her, people will have to unravel what she is saying. When she speaks, most of the time Her family had to really listen to what she is saying in order to understand the point she is trying to get out. Most of the things she says are about what will happen in the future. She knows what to do in every situation, and she helps her family whenever someone gets hurt. She knows exactly how to heal them and how to keep them calm and she has helped every one in Anita’s family generation. Chucha is also very superstitious, she sleeps in a coffin and everything she owns is purple, she has to dye everything purple, and there will never be a time or day where she will not wear purple. “’Wow!’ He says glancing around at Chucha’s purple towel hanging from a peg, her purple mosquito net strung between two nails, her purple dresses draped over a chair. ‘Does everything she wear have to be purple?’ I nod ‘Even her panties and stuff have to be dyed…” (Chapter 3, pg. 34-35) She believes that this will keep any bad spirits away from her and her family. I hope that Chucha will be able to keep the SIM away from her family also.

Eurycleia has been apart of Telemachus’s family for a long time. Eurycleia is the only the nurse in the house; she also is one of the women that were loyal to Odysseus. She is very wise and can tell Telemachus everything he wants to know about his father. She helped care for Odysseus since he was a boy, she knows about all of his scars and how he got them. Eurycleia could identify Odysseus just from one of his scars. “That scar as the old nurse cradled his leg and her hands passed down she felt it, knew it… Joy and torment gripped her heart at once, tears rushed to her eyes- voice choked in her throat… ‘Yes, yes you are Odysseus-oh dear boy I couldn’t know you before till I touched the body of my king’” (Book 19, Lines 528-538)

Chucha and Eurycleia are greatly admired by the people they live with, although Chucha has her way of speaking unclearly sometimes, and leaves her family thinking for a longtime about what she has said. They are very kind ladies who took care of the same family for at least 2 generations. They are treated better than any of the other maids or servants in their homes because of this, they are very trustworthy, honest, and loyal to their care takers. They are very similar but they also have many differences. Chucha took care of a high middle class family who was hiding from the government; and Eurycleia took care of a royal family who mourned for a family member to return home.