Life’s Obstacles in Destino and The Odyssey Essay Sample

External forces play a larger role in a person’s life than one may realize. In many books, movies, stories, and even real-life events, external forces greatly influence the path of people’s journeys in ways they may not even notice. Even if the force is insignificant, it still influences where a person ends up. By comparing the short film Destino and the poem The Odyssey, audiences will be able to determine that many external forces influence a person’s journey.

People in their everyday lives have a large impact on how time is used. In the movie Destino, a woman leans into a kiss on a male character but his face melts as she gets closer. This represents how people others love can seemingly “melt” from their lives like they were never there in the first place. Afterward, the woman starts to run around a spiral tower to try to make it to the top. On the way up, she runs into other figurines and starts slowing down her running pace into a joyous dance; this represents how people can distract a person from reaching their goal. Even though the activities may seem needed at the moment, they never benefited the woman and slowed her down from reaching the top faster. The figurines in Destino are similarly represented by Polyphemus in The Odyssey. The Cyclops Polyphemus keeps Odysseus and his crew of people captive in his cave; he keeps the men in his cave by putting a barrier before them, which kept the crew of men longer and wasted their time trying to get back to their home island. After a long time, Odysseus and his men grip the underside of the Polyphemus’s sheep in an attempt to trick the Cyclops to let them out of the cave. Polyphemus lets out his sheep to graze unknowing of the men under the sheep, and the men are let out and able to continue their voyage. In both stories, the barriers keep people from reaching what they are trying to accomplish in life, but ultimately, the barriers only delay the journey instead of destroying it. 

In comparison to humans causing wasted time, nature can help influence what one does with their time. In Destino, a hummingbird emerges from a pyramid building. This bird flies towards the man’s arm then proceeds to tap a watch on his wrist and break the clock. The movie then moves towards the man’s palm and shows ants crawling out of the man’s skin. Once the animals move out of his sight, the man continues on his way. These images depict how nature can be a huge influence on their time. When each animal appears before the man, he takes time to watch what the animals do. The action of observing actually wasted the time he had. The hummingbird and ants in Destino similarly represent the lotus flowers and storm in The Odyssey. On Odysseus’ voyage home, he encounters a storm sent by Zeus. This storm brings Odysseus and his crew to the island of the lotus-eaters. The natives meet the crew on the island and give them all the lotus fruit. This fruit causes the men to lose all thoughts of home and want nothing but to stay on the island and eat more fruit. Odysseus, wanting to go home, is forced into the island to take time to drag all of his men to the boat. Once on the boat, the men start waking up and remembering their original purpose, going home. The storm and the flowers both delayed Odysseus’ journey home by 10 days. In both Destino and The Odyssey, nature interferes with the original plan of the characters, yet both find a way to overcome the force and continue their expeditions.

In addition to humans and nature causing delays, time can also influence a person’s journey. In the movie Destino, there is a man who is seen throughout the whole movie, but at the very end, he has some sort of blanket in his arms, which represents his love for a mortal woman, and time is running out. Even though he seems to love it and wanst to cherish it forever, he can't. The action of the man trying to keep the blanket is a representation of trying to hold onto the time he has left with the woman. The blanket eventually disappears from his grasp, representing that time is always continuing and doesn’t wait for him. Eventually, the man moves forward without the blanket. The man's misery over losing the blanket is represented in The Odyssey by Odysseus missing Telemachus. Odysseus’ quest was meant to be a short amount of time. They went to fight in the Trojan War and thought it wouldn't be long before he returned; that wasn’t the case. They had won the battle, but numerous forces were holding him and his crew back from returning home. Time had slipped away from them and was out of their hands. What Odysseus had hoped to be a year or two, was 20 years. He missed the growth of his child, who was a baby when he left, and a man when he returned. Odysseus’ return made him realize how much time he had lost. How time had slipped out of his control and continued forwards. Both artworks exemplify the concept of individuals believing they have time under control but realizing that time never stops for humans, and can be the downfall of one’s life journey.

Destino and The Odyssey both beautifully show the concept that every form of life has a journey, but sometimes things get in the way. Things don’t always go as planned, and every person on a journey must know how to overcome an adversary. Characters in the works must overcome the forces to get where they originally planned to be. Both pieces clearly show how external forces can work with us, but more commonly against us. The stories also demonstrate that external forces can greatly impact a person's journey; and whether they like it or not, the reality is, most of the time there is nothing they can do but overcome the struggles.