“O muse! Sing in me, and through me tell the story...Of that man skilled in all the ways of contending...A wanderer, harried for years on end…” (Homer). These are the opening words of The Odyssey. This is also in the opening scene of O Brother Where Art Thou?. O Brother is a reception of the revered story of Odysseus’ journey with a bit of a twist. The works have similarities that only a person well informed of the Odyssey could see. The Odyssey and O Brother highlight the trials of the main character’s journeys. While the Odyssey was written in the eighth century, O Brother is set during the 1930s in the deep south. Each of the trials that the characters face is supposed to make them quit their journey, but they proceed with greater determination. …show more content…
This plot is similar to that of Odysseus’ escape from Calypso’s island, where he to spends a period of time. Odysseus and Everett rely on their oratory to convince people to get them to do what they want. Odysseus’ men and Everett’s companions are just along for the ride and most times are punished for the actions of their “leaders”. Along the way Everett meets many characters that can be connected to some characters in The Odyssey. Everett and his companions first meet a blind man who predicts that Everett and his crew will not find the treasure they are seeking and face many tribulations along the way. Everett convinces his friends that what the blind man said is not true and they continue on the journey. This blind prophet bares a similar role to that of Tiresias in The Odyssey. He is the person that gives Odysseus guidance on how to get back home and tells him to “leave [the cattle of the sun] flocks and herds unharmed” (Homer). This is a bit different …show more content…
These women can be compared to Sirens. Everett and his men fall under the spell of these sirens. The sirens make the men drink whiskey until they pass out. When they wake up they discover that Pete is nowhere to be found. All they discover is his clothes and a frog in them; Delmar is convinced that that was in fact Pete himself. The fact that Delmar believes that the sirens turned Pete into a frog resembles the scene when Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs. Although Pete was not really turned into a frog, it symbolizes how they are punished for being on a journey with Everett. Same can be said of Odysseus’ men. They are punished for being on this grand journey with a man that has many faults including pride. Everett and Delmar then meet Big Daniel Teague. Daniel Teague is a big man with only one functioning eye. Polyphemus and Daniel go hand in hand. Though, Daniel is a salesman and his is also very good at oratory like Everett. This is completely different than Polyphemus in The Odyssey. Polyphemus is supposed to be a monster and nothing like a civilized person. Daniel is a civilized but he does have animalistic tendencies. He kills the frog with his hands and beats up Everett and Delmar. Daniel killed what was supposedly one of Everett’s men. This is pretty close to what Polyphemus
O Brother, Where Art Thou, a film written and directed by the Coen brothers, is a modern day interpretation of Homer’s ancient epic the Odyssey. The opening credits of the movie quote the invocation of the Muse from the first lines of the epic: “Oh Muse sing in me, and through me tell the story of the man skilled in all the ways of contending, A wanderer, harried for years on end”. The film follows Ulysses Everett McGill (portrayed by George Clooney), a depression era Odysseus, and his men Delmar O’Donnell (Tim Nelson), and Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro). The three men are escaped convicts, running from the law through the Deep South in an effort to reach home and split a (truly non-existent) treasure. The leader of their group, Ulysses Everett McGill (from here on referred to as Everett), is a smooth talking self-professed lawyer with extreme egotistical issues. Pride is a theme in both the movie as well as the original epic. In both the Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou his pride is the source of many dilemmas. The visual symbol of this pride throughout the movie is Everett’s Dapper Dan pomade.
Comparison O Brother, Where Art Thought? by Joel and Ethan Coen is a film, made in 2000, that was based on the Odyssey in many ways. The movie is about a guy, Ulysses Everett, who is on a long journey to find the “treasure” he tells his two friends, Delmar and Pete. He is actually tricking them into the treasure because he knows that they would not go on this elongated journey, which they are escaping prison for, if they knew the truth. He was actually going to try to stop the marriage of his wife with her new fiance.
Rainsford is fighting to survive a thrilling hunt in The Most Dangerous Game. Odysseus is caught in a long journey fighting for his life and home in The Odyssey. The two men are extremely similar in their dangerous adventure. Parallels are seen in their skills, journey, and enemies. But even with these parallels, The Odyssey is deeper and has a more emotional ending than The Most Dangerous Game.
“Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye, Laertes’ son, whose home’s on Ithaca!” There are two important leaders on is Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars IV. Odysseus and Luke are both wise, but Odysseus is more arrogant. He being arrogant makes him less of a better leader, more of a stubborn person, and more narcissistic.
Brother, Where Art Thou? These stories share crucial components of the hero’s journey whether it be “crossing the first threshold,” where the main characters of both stories begin their long adventure that transforms them into heroes; “the supreme ordeal,” where the main characters are both deprived of the opportunity to get home sooner; or “return with elixir,” where Odysseus and Ulysses both return to their homes alive from the comfort of their wives. In their major plot points, the novel The Odyssey and the motion picture O Brother convey obvious similarities in key elements of their heroes’ journeys such as “crossing the first threshold,” “the supreme ordeal,” and “return with elixir.” Firstly, the main characters of both stories, Odysseus and Ulysses, share qualities of the “crossing the first threshold” that quite clearly show the similarities in these stories.
Let's begin with the most basic and obvious similarities, the movie and the book both begin with the same line " Sing in me O muse." The Greek name Odysseus translates to the name Ulysses in Latin. Odysseus's goal in the book is to get home to Ithaca to be with his wife Penelope and save her from the suitors. Ulysses is trying to get to Ithica, New York, to stop his wife Penny from marrying a suitor. Odysseus begins his journey by spending seven years on the island of Calypso before being let go. Ulysses is in jail for several years before escaping. Shortly after escaping, Ulysses runs into a blind man that tells him several warnings about his up coming adventure. Odysseus gets various warnings from different gods, and from prophets through out his entire journey. In the Odyssey, they travel to the island of the lotus-eaters. Once the men eat the flower they become passive and don't want to leave the island. In O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU the scene where Delmer and Pete are baptized is comparable to this. Delmer and Pete have no worry and are happy that they are sin free, even though the police are still looking to arrest them for escaping jail. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is warned not to touch the cattle of Helios, ...
Many of the character have the same characteristics in the Odyssey and O brother. An examples of this is found between Odysseus and Everett. The main goal for both of these characters throughout the story is returning to their family, but there is many incidents before their goal is achieved. Both protagonists believe that they are the greatest and that they don’t need any help from the Gods. This is shown because Odysseus does not sacrifice
Through these voyages certain parallels are drawn concerning Odysseus and Telemachos: the physical journeys, the mental preparations they have produced, and the resulting change in emotional makeup. These play an immense role in the way the story is set up, due to the purpose of each character's journey, their personal challenges, and the difficulties that surround them.
In both Homer’s The Odyssey and the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? the audience is given an opportunity to experience a spectacular adventure, filled with not only the sense of journey, but also the senses of peril and excitement. A tale about a Greek hero being compared to a film set in Middle America starring three jail-escapees seems rather far-fetched. However, upon closer inspection, both actually share a lot in common. The Odyssey stars Odysseus, a man famous for his heroics in the Trojan War. O Brother, Where Art Thou? shows a bit of a contrast by starring Ulysses, a former convict who escaped and began looking for “A Treasure”. So by default, one would assume that that these two stories would be completely different. However, it ends up being quite the opposite. The two stories are so remarkably alike that it is almost staggering. However, it may not just be simple similarities that make the two so alike. The main reasons why the two characters are so alike are not so much the actions that they take, as oppose to the overall human emotional aspect of the two pieces of work. For example, we see that both Odysseus and Ulysses are invested in their lives with their families, and as such, they never have a moment where they stop thinking about the lives they used to live. Both characters are extremely alike in terms of thoughts, skills, and experiences. They are both profound tacticians, as well as being rather strong and good looking men. So in the end, both of these men have plenty in common on the emotional and psychological levels.
In this assignment, I will be analyzing the characteristics of Odysseus and Penelope based on Homer and Ovid’s accounts. By exploring this element, we can compare and contrast how Odysseus and Penelope behave in certain situations. Although they have many similarities, they are both different as well, in which each displays a series of their own wisdoms in their encounters.
won) fighting a war against the city of Troy and has been held captive by
In book 1, Redcrosse and his story is an example of the journey an epic hero, similar to Odysseus of Homer's the Odyssey, would take while still being the embodiment of holiness as Spencer expresses. This is so due to the knight's unwavering devotion to the queen of the story and the acts he commits in her name; the knight's expressed devotion is a direct representation of Spencer and his dutifulness towards the queen considering that the piece is written for her as the subject of interest. However, while Redcrosse and the other characters of the story such as Britomart, are the ideals that Queen Elizabeth I upholds and portrays they all have flaws that discontinue the similarities. For example, Redcrosse is deceived by the witch, Duessa, thus
The film O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a reinterpretation of the epic poem The Odyssey. The Coen brothers, writers and directors of the film, did not over analyze their representation. “It just sort of occurred to us after we’d gotten into it somewhat that it was a story about someone going home, and sort of episodic in nature, and it kind of evolved into that,” says Joel Coen in Blood Siblings, “It’s very loosely and very sort of unseriously based on The Odyssey” (Woods 32). O Brother, Where Art Thou? contains ideas from The Odyssey for the sake of modernization and entertainment of an audience that comprehends the allusions to the epic. The Coen brothers utilize elements of Homer’s The Odyssey to improve and to give direction to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a reinterpretation which was made simply to show that an epic-adventure such as The Odyssey could be modernized to apply to modern times.
“The Odyssey” is an epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus and the story of his many travels and adventures. The Odyssey tells the main character’s tale of his journey home to the island of Ithaca after spending ten years fighting in the Trojan War, and his adventures when he returns home and he is reunited with his family and close friends. This literary analysis will examine the story and its characters, relationships, major events, symbols and motifs, and literary devices.
Can two things ever truly be exactly the same? When it comes to epic heroes, I’m not sure. In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by Robert Fagles, the journey of two epic heroes are depicted for us. Achilles, hero of the book The Iliad, is fighting in the Trojan War. Odysseus, hero of the book The Odyssey, is simply fighting to get home. Although both the epic heroes are put through some of the same very tough and difficult situations, it doesn’t mean they are quite the same person. An analysis of The Iliad and The Odyssey will show three similarities and three differences between Achilles and Odysseus.