Finkel’s books are in a sense a modern-day Iliad and Odyssey—they follow a group of
soldiers in combat in Iraq and then the same group of soldiers after they return home.
In some sense, Finkel is similar to Shay’s two books, Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus
in America, but without the connection to the Iliad and the Odyssey that Shay makes.
In you final paper, you should take one of the Finkel books and think about creating your
own Odysseus in America. That is, we want to test Shay’s ideas by seeing how you can
relate what happens to Achilles and Odysseus to events in Finkel.
The central notion you are working with is does the account of homecoming in Homer
have a relation to homecoming in these recent books, yes or no?
You should use Finkel Homer, along with Shay if that is helpful, in your analysis. You
should use at least three or four incidents in Finkel and the corresponding incidents in
Homer. Discuss your connections in detail.
As I said, I want you to be clever in your analysis and think of states of mind and
situations, not exact comparisons since you are looking at the bronze age and the 21st century.