Similarities Between Hudsucker Proxy And Odysseus

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Recommended: Literary analysis of the Odyssey

What is a Hero? A hero is a mythological or legendary figure often of godly descent endowed with great strength or ability or power (Merriam-Webster). A hero is also the one who displays great courage (Merriam-Webster). So there is no one way to characterize a hero, but one hero that is widely agreed upon of being extraordinary and is admired widely is the Homeric Hero. A Homeric Hero is a hero who processes strength, knowledge, power, courage, skill, and honor. In the film Hudsucker Proxy the Coen brothers create the character Norville Barnes represent the Homeric hero Odysseus. This suggests that the character had to go through a hero 's journey and obtains new relationships.
To observe the similarities between Hudsucker Proxy and the Odyssey …show more content…

In both stories the hero meets very similar people like a lover, a loyal friend, and a villain. In Hudsucker Proxy, Norville’s version of the lover character is the Amy Archer. Amy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Manhattan Argus assigned to write a story about Norville, so she gets a job at Hudsucker Industries as his personal secretary to interact with him on a daily basis (Hudsucker Proxy). Amy is very similar to Penelope from The Odyssey. Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, who spends her days in the palace waiting for the husband who left for Troy twenty years earlier and never returned (The Odyssey). The characters are similar in the context of their undying love for the hero and have hope in the hero even when the hero was on his journey filled with struggles. The loyal friend character of Norville in Hudsucker Proxy is Moses. Moses is the man who operates the tower 's giant clock and is very knowledgeable in the events that take place at Hudsucker Industries (Hudsucker Proxy). Moses is very similar to Eumaeus from The Odyssey. Eumaeus is the loyal shepherd who helps Odysseus reclaim his throne after his return to Ithaca (The Odyssey). The characters are similar in the context of their belief in the hero even when the hero himself lacked self confidence. In Hudsucker Proxy, the villain role is fulfilled by Sidney Mussburger. Sidney Mussburger is a ruthless member of the board of directors who learns about the company’s stock shares will be soon sold to the public, so he concocts a scheme to buy the controlling interest in the company by temporarily depressing the stock price due to having an incompetent president (Hudsucker Proxy). Mussburger is very similar to the suitors from The Odyssey. The Suitors are 108 men from all over Greece who come to try to court and marry Queen Penelope, but she

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