Father Comes Home From the Wars

Most of the characters in Parks’s play have counterparts in Homer’s Odyssey. Pick one pair of matching characters and analyze their characters and story arcs. How are they similar, and how are they different?

One important character in Parks’s play who does not have a clear counterpart in Homer’s Odyssey is the character named “Homer.” Instead, he has the name of the author of the Odyssey. Why do you think this is? What influence does Parks’s Homer have over other characters in the play and how does he “rewrite” their stories?

Why does Parks draw so heavily from the Odyssey to tell a story set in the Civil War-era South? What is the purpose of drawing on literary tradition in this way and in this context?