Kafka’s Realism Regarding the Sirens

Kafkas rendition of Odysseus encounter with the temptresss is a veridical approach to Homers relation of events. Kafka points out that the song of the Sirens would fix been more(prenominal) powerful than anything set in federal agency to block out their song from anyones ears, especially the ascend Circe advised Odysseus to manpowerage in the ears of his manpower. As Kafka says, he had pass with flying colors faith in the handful of wax (128).Herein lies Kafkas main point, viz. that despite the efforts put forth by anyone, even those guided by the gods, no one would have been able to get by the Sirens and their diabolically, seductive song it follows that, Kafka maintains, the Sirens could non have been singing at all (128). Kafkas interpretation of Homer here goes deeper than solely asserting that the Sirens could only have been unruffled or else than singing when Odysseus led his men past the shore they inhabited.Kafka is attributing the existential root word of c hoice regarding Odysseus in particular by implying that Odysseus, more sound in judgement than even the gods, was able to simply sheer the existence of the Sirens and thereby escape. Realizing this to be the case, the Sirens did not even bother to sing, but Odysseus, as Kafka asserts, in attempting to shield himself from both the Sirens and the gods, told the horizontal surface as if they had been singing, and that his wiles were enough to protect both him and his men from the deadly song (128).In maintaining that the Sirens were singing, when in all probability they were not as their song would have soft penetrated any barrier, Odysseus was able to keep everyone laughing(prenominal)the Sirens included. Kafka is asking his audience to reconsider the likelihood that Odysseus instructions, handed down from Circe, actually worked. In contrast to Homers mutation of events, Kafka is maintaining that realistically it would not have been at all possible for anyone, no publication how strong, to escape the song of the Sirens.Whereas Homer asserts that in fact Odysseus was able to escape the deadly song by filling the ears of his men with wax and then tying their draw up on the mast, Kafka says that Odysseus was merely gull everyone into thinking that it actually worked, even his men. The implications of the adjunct Kafka mentions near the end of his story are that Odysseus was able to close off his interior(a) mind from even the gods, and that they were unable to collide with in him that in fact the Sirens were silent.In spot, Homer was able to maintain that Odysseus legendary journey was in fact overabundant with danger at every turn by positing that Odysseus had indeed outsmarted the alluring Siren song. But, as Kafka alludes, it would have been a rather dull journey were Odysseus to have admitted that the Sirens were in fact silent. Odysseus survival, not only end-to-end his journey but after as well, rested in his ability to mug himself and in turn the gods.