Compare And Contrast The Odysseus And The Hero's Journey

The Hero’s Journey describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization. After reading the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, and watching the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, by the Coen brothers, they both show evidence of the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is based on Joseph Campbell’s A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is projected as the “hero” while in O Brother, a man by the name of Ulysses Everett McGill can be seen as the “hero”. Elements of The Odyssey and O Brother are shown through the stages in the Hero’s Journey like the Approach to the Inmost Cave, The Supreme Ordeal, and Threshold Crossing.

First, elements of O Brother and The Odyssey can be shown through the stage Approach to the

This stage shows how the hero is being faced with his greatest fear but eventually overcomes this fear. In O Brother, Homer Stokes is calling out the Soggy Bottom Boys talking about how they are not really who they say they are. He continues on to say how these men need to be placed back into prison. This demonstrates evidence of a Hero’s Journey by showing Everett’s greatest fear which is going back to prison or possibly being put to death. This fear was overcome when Homer was taken away for talking rubbish in the ears of the all the people around them. In The Odyssey, The Supreme Ordeal is when Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, are killing the suitors. This could be associated with the Hero’s Journey because Odysseus faces his biggest challenge to kill the suitors, so he can win his wife back. To add on, he does succeed in killing all the suitors and is back with Penelope. This is how elements of O Brother and The Odyssey can be shown through the stage The Supreme