Telemachus does a lot of speaking, and he declares that Ulysses is coming after twenty years. Eurymachus pretty much says "oh, we have a wise guy over here! Well let me tell you your mom is the hottest and most high born lady in the land, we will never leave until she dies. You're father's dead too, why do you hold on to useless hope? Stop being stubborn!" So here the text does a good job of defining Telemachus. he is angry that people are quick to court his mother, and enough time has passed to make him start issuing threats. He is seen as brash and foolish, optimistic is the worst way. He is stubborn, he won't change his stance, he is proud, and he is scared of what would happen, what it would mean, for his father to never return. Telemachus beseeches to the warrior maid, which I later found out to be Pallas. And then the goddess comes down is Mentor's form and tells him that his enemies will fail. And they set sail at the end of book 2.
We have to hear about Telemachus's story before Ulysses because what is Ulysses' goal? To go home of course. He has to see his family, he has to return from Troy. And every time we read about Ulysses referring to home images of Telemachus appear in our heads, and we know what Ulysses fights for. Telemachus was tired of being helpless, and aspired to do something about it and set sail in search of Ulysses. It can be said that both journeys of the father and son parallel and at the same time, are much different form each other. Ulysses is cocksure and wise, he knows he is wise. Telemachus is young, but is humble, he knows he isn't wise enough to "...meet, or how accost the sage, Unskill'd in speech, not yet mature of age?" he says in book 3 to Mentor. He also does not have to play the leadership role like his father does. It's a story about both characters, and they are linked because one cannot read of Ulysses and not call to mind Telemachus and vice verse.
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