How the Iliad and Silence of the Girls related to the 2020 United States Election
There are many lessons that could be learned in today’s society from the literature of the past. Books such as the Iliad by Homer as well as The Silence of the Girls by Pat Bark have connections to what we go through on a day-to-day basis in the modern world, and has what I feel are connections to how the recent presidential election went down, as well as how people handled it. A few examples of connections between the recent presidential election and the stories are seen when you dig deep enough in the stories. In the last presidential election of the United States of America, there was much unease throughout the country because the sides were very split between the two candidates that could win, and then on top of that there was many people that I personally know that did not go out and vote because “I don’t want to pick the best of two evils.” And the people that did vote state they hated both the candidates but decided to pick one over the other. When the election took place, it was a very back and forth battle that went on for a long time (compared to past elections). For an extended period of time, it looked like there could be a tossup for who won. For days after the ballots started to get counted and marked, several states took a very long time to count up their ballots that would determine who won and who lost the election to become president of the United States. One of the big connections that we should look at is from the Iliad and how the battle of troy seemed to go back and forth on who was winning. In addition, in The Silence of the Girls the main character Briseis seems to be almost neutral about her entire situation of possibly marring Achilles, which has an almost direct link to how many voters felt this last election.
One of the big things that I see in the Iliad that has direct correlations with what we just went through as a country in the last election was the fact that it went back and forth on who was going to win. In the Iliad, the Greeks were winning it seemed like for a long while. When Achilles left the battle, the Trojans started to get an upper hand in the battle. Achilles then decided to come back into the fight, resulting in the Trojans starting to lose standing in the battle once again. This has a direct correlation between that and the past elections because for the longest time the polls went back and forth on who was going to win and become president of the United States. One minute it looked like Trump was going to win, then the next it looked like Biden was going to win. In addition, there was a very long wait for certain states to count their ballots, which added to the uncertainty. This put people in an uneasy state because one minute the man they wanted to win was ahead, then later he was not. This draws parallels to when the Greeks (during the time Achilles was not participating) seemed to be uneasy of not knowing it they could win or not, and begged Agamemnon to get Achilles back into battle because without him, there was a chance they would lose the war and that made men uneasy and messed with their heads. The perfect example of this back and forth is when President Donald Trump called the race saying that he won and was going to be reelected to be the 2020 president because at the time of this statement, he was ahead in the polls, and yet in the end of the election, he ended up losing to his opponent and was in fact not going to be reelected president in 2020. This has connections to how in both the Iliad as well as The Silence of the Girls the Greeks seemed to call that they would win before the battle was over but the moment that Achilles would no longer fight, they started to lose and didn’t know what to do. So, the connection that I see in the stories to the real world is almost the arrogance of the people winning, thinking nothing could happen and there is no way they could lose because they were ahead.
Another thing that we may be able to relate to the Iliad, as well as The Silence of the Girls is the fact of how people reacted to the events that took place. In the Iliad Achilles was out for blood once Patroclus died in battle, or when Agamemnon refused to return Chryseis (a girl that he kidnapped as his concubine). This seems very close to how the republican party is acting to the loss in the polls. They are “out for blood” by bad talking the soon to be president saying that the election was full of fraud, and that the outcome was not correct making the new president look bad without him even being in office yet. The republican party (the party of the current president) is demanding recounts in multiple states, trying to hold the president in office. This shows that people throughout time won’t back down, and even when there is nothing that can come out of the events that happened after people will stick to their guns. (Examples Patroclus won’t be alive after Achilles murder spree, Agamemnon refusal to return the girl leading to a plaque, and the president still not getting elected.) It’s almost like grasping at straws like in the Iliad, when the quote “”Aeneas, captain, counselor, how we need you now!…”” (Iliad p.707) it seems like there begging for help, close to how the president is trying to hold on to his job I believe the lesson that should be learned is the fact that sometimes you need to accept the fact you can’t win them all, because if you refuse to accept that then you will be fighting for something that will only cause loss and pain to those around them, and nothing good will come out of it in the end. Another example is from the Iliad stating “…and saying that Apollo has plagued us because I would not take a ransom for this girl, the daughter of Chryses.” (Iliad. lines 24–25) were it is explained that the plaque is only going on because of Agamemnon’s refusal to return Chryses, his stubbornness is what caused the plague to begin with.
In The Silence of the Girls Briseis was kind of indifferent to the idea of marring Achilles. She talks about how being married to Achilles may be better than being a slave. She looked at it as the best of two evils and saw it as a chance for some kind of change I her life, even if that change was still a negative. This is the idea of the best of two evils, this thinking is very close to how many people took the last election, with them not liking either candidate but voting for one thinking they would be the best out of the two, or the thinking of not voting at all because they thought both candidates were not fit for the job of being president of the United States. I think there are two quotes that kind of show a similarity for how voters felt this past election both from The Silence of the Girls, those quotes are “For a moment, he actually contemplated not going to him, but that was out of the question, of course, so he heaved himself onto his feet and went outside… None of it quite disguised the fact that Achilles was using a king’s son as a messenger boy, but it had been like this so long Patroclus hardly knew how to resent it.” (The Silence of the Girls, ch.25 pg.152) when Achilles called over Patroclus as well as the quote talking about Briseis marrying Achilles “A dead man’s wishes carry enormous weight with the living, particularly when the dead man has been as deeply loved as Patroclus. Go on, admit it! You were trying to arrange your marriage. Hardly! Achilles had just told everybody he wished I was dead! No, but you gave it a go, didn’t you? How could you do that? This man killed your brothers, he killed your husband, he burned your city, he destroyed every single thing you’d ever loved — and you were prepared to marry him? I don’t understand how you could do that. Perhaps that’s because you’ve never been a slave.” (The Silence of the Girls, ch.33 pg.190) I picked these quotes because the first one shows the loyalty of Patroclus to Achilles, even if he doesn’t like how he called him over and still goes along with it because it’s almost expected of him. The second quote shows that Briseis is picking the best of two evils in the idea of marrying Achilles and she tried to only better herself but not truly liking either outcome. These show what it’s like to be a person living in the United States during the past election, indifferent or loyal, and the thing that can be learned from the readings is that a choice may be better then another but that doesn’t always make that chose a good one. The book seemed to paint both those quotes in an almost negative light. It shows an almost negative light to do what is expected of Patroclus even though it was something as simple as being called over, it also shows the fact that when you don’t like it but won’t speak out because of his loyalty to Achilles. His loyalty to Achilles means he will take something he doesn’t like, just because it is expected of him.
In the end I think it’s clear that there are connections to the readings of the past, and what we are going through as a country in the present. This idea of two sides fighting for power, and neither backing down and the people not knowing where they stand on tough decisions is something we need to understand, and that people will always look for what they think is best to better themselves, even when they still see the better of the outcomes as a lesser negative. I think what we can earn from the readings is that we as people will do anything to better our lives and sometimes the better road is not always a “good” road to take but we need to understand that not everything we choose to do will always have a set good and bad to it. As well as sometimes when outcomes happen that people don’t like they will fight it out of stubbornness and the refusal to understand they didn’t get what they wanted. We need to learn that losing is part of life, and as of right now many people can’t except that and most likely will never except that because this mindset has been around forever. You are going to always find those people that will fight losing, even if they have nothing to go off to say otherwise. Those are some of the things I saw similarities in between the books Iliad and The Silence of the Girls to our modern day, 2020 election we just had in the United States.
Citations
Barker, Pat. The Silence of the Girls. Thorpe, Charnwood, 2019.
HOMER, HOMER. ILIAD. FORGOTTEN Books, 2016.
Wikipedia contributors. “Trojan War.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Dec. 2020. Web. 14 Dec. 2020.
