“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
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.
Homer’s Odyssey is the iconic story of a man’s episodic journey home. The film, O Brother Where Art Thou, is a justifiable homage to the Odyssey because of the many parallels between some of the major characters depicted in the movie and the epic poem. The movie is set in the 1930s in the state of Mississippi, changing the characters in social demeanor, but retaining their motivation and major plot points.
“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.
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. These parts of the heroes’ journeys for Odysseus and Ulysses both consist of the two beginning their long journeys and beginning the transformations from ordinary people to heroes. In The Odyssey, this part of the journey is when both Odysseus starts his journey to Troy to fight in the Trojan War and when his transformation from ordinary citizen to hero commences. In O Brother, this section of the journey is when Ulysses and his fellow jail mates break out of jail and begin the long journey home that initiates his character shift from an av...
O Brother, Where Art Thou is loosely based of the Odyssey, writtern by Homer. This was clear from the very start because in both the epic and movie, they begin by saying “O Muse..”. There are other evidence in O Brother that connect it to the Odyssey through character, confliclt, relationship, and theme.
In the Greek epic, “The Odyssey”, Odysseus encounters many monsters and other obstacles on his trip home to Ithaca. “O Brother, Where Art Thou” is a modern day twist on Odysseus’ trip home. Ulysses Everett McGill, or Everett, escapes prison to return home to his “treasure”. Both Everett and Odysseus encounter the same obstacles, like the cyclops, Lotus eaters, and Sirens.
In Odyssey, Homer creates a parallel between Odysseus and Telemachos, father and son. The two are compared in the poem from every aspect. One parallel was the quest of Telemachos, in correlation with the journey of his father. In this, Odysseus is developed from a childish, passive, and untested boy, to a young man preparing to stand by his father's side. This is directly connected to the voyage of Odysseus, in that they both lead to the same finale, and are both stepping-stones towards wisdom, manhood, and scholarship.
First, the Cohen brothers comedic masterpiece used inspirations from The Odyssey, and addressed serious cultural issues that were faced in the 20th century. O' Brother, Where Art Thou and The Odyssey, illustrated the political, social, and religious cultures of both historical eras. The film's cultural aspect featured a belligerent political campaign, unorganized KKK, slavery, baptisms, and new acquaintances from different social structures. The Odyssey focused its Greek cultural influences from the war of Troy, the polytheistic faith, animal sacrifices, and exploring new lands and people. These culture insights influenced how the poem and film were
“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” includes a young, not Gary Busey, George Clooney at his finest playing, Ulysses Everett McGill. Ulysses is a fun character with a conman personality leading his crew to the treasure of a life time. The story takes place during the time of the great depression and Ulysses and his two fellow convicts escape from prison at the start of their journey. Throughout the movie, the three main characters go on an adventure to “secure the treasure”, with Ulysses depicted as their leader. He makes the men believe that fortune is in their future when, in reality, they are helping Ulysses get back to his wife before she remarries. The clock is ticking for our adventurers, as they do everything possible to make it on time. The
O Brother Where Art Thou is a movie based off of Greek mythology of Odysseus and his adventures. Odysseus can be translated in Roman mythology to Ulysses, like this there are many comparisons in both texts. In O Brother Where Art Thou most of the challenges that Ulysses, Delmar and Pete face can be associated with the obstacles in the Odyssey. Even though the stories were written seven hundred and thirty years apart they are still very similar. Throughout both, the Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou, adversity is faced in a persistent manner, although one is a book and another is a movie, similarities and differences coincides with each other.
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
won) fighting a war against the city of Troy and has been held captive by
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.
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.
“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.