O Brother Where Art Thou Comparisons to the Odyssey

O' Brother, Where Art Thou? A Coen Brothers Odyssey

I am a man of constant sorrow,
I've seen problem all my day
I bid farewell to quondam Kentucky,
The place where I was born and raised

-O' Brother Where Art Thou

"Be strong, saith my middle; I am a soldier;

I have seen worse sights than this."

― Homer, The Odyssey

In this piece, I prepare out to discuss the similarities and differences betwixt the Coens' O' Blood brother, Where Art Thou and Homer's The Odyssey. "Sing to me O Muse . . . ", the line at the beginning of the film, is the first line of the Odyssey and the credits land that it is adapted from Homer's The Odyssey. Just just how closely does the flick's narrative tie into the Greek poet's tale? And, if you lot're woendering where the championship for the Coen Brothers film comes from, well the title of the film is related to the Preston Sturges film "Sullivan'south Travels," released in 1941 and not the Odyssey.  Earlier I dive into the similarities of the ii texts, I believe that it is best to requite a summary near the tale of the Odyssey:

First off, The Odyssey is in fact a sequel; to Homer'south Iliad (yes, an I know that sequels aren't equally expert as the original piece of text simply in this case, this is an example of the sequel beingness amend than the original). The poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus (known equally Ulysses in Roman myths), king of Ithaca, and his journeying home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to achieve Ithaca after the x-year Trojan War. In his absenteeism, it is causeless Odysseus has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, who are seeking her hand in marriage. Upon his journey home, Odysseus encounters beautiful sirens who lure his crew to expiry, a cyclops who wants to kill him and a lotus plant which when digested causes amnesia.

Now upon researching, I discovered an affluence of references to The Odyssey throughout O' Brother Where Fine art K, which was a pleasant surprise. However, this realisation did not brand my job whatever easier! There were in fact more than I actually first realised, and sadly I can't list them all in great detail or else this would make for a very long article! Instead I desire to focus on the main plot points in the pic and compare them to the verse form; so we can analyse the similarities between the texts.

First off I want to talk over the primary character of both O' Brother Where Art M and the Odyssey.  The Coens' flick follows the grapheme of Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), who is returning home afterward escaping from incarceration in Mississippi during the Great Depression. He is chained to ii other prisoners, slow-witted Delmar (Tim Blake Neslon) and hot-tempered Pete (John Turturro), then the 3 must escape together.

Equally previously mentioned the Roman'southward name for Odysseus was Ulysses, and the graphic symbol of Odysseus has the aforementioned personality and characteristics as Clooney's grapheme in O' Brother Where Fine art Thou. Both men are cunning, quick-witted, fast-talking and reckless in their decision-making, but they are loyal to their companions and they are likeable rogues fifty-fifty if sometimes their own selfish needs for attention place others at risks. Perhaps the about obvious difference in the two versions of the story is the fact that Odysseus is a famous king and warrior, while Everett aka Ulysses is a bedevilled con human who has escaped prison. Odysseus is often forthright most his identity and purpose, unless he is admittedly required to lie, while Everett tends to operate in the opposite manner. Ordinarily, he is lying, unless it is absolutely necessary to tell the truth. Both characters are arrogant and cocky-centered, but Odysseus assumes his status as king and soldier provides him this right, while Everett simply assumes a high status, with little reason or justification. The pride of both characters is made manifest through the presentation their captious nature. It is also worth mentioning that the proper noun, Odysseus' means "trouble" in Greek, referring to bother you once more the giving and receiving of trouble—as is ofttimes the case in his wanderings trouble by name, trouble by nature!

A skillful instance of how similar these two heroes are is in the following scenes. In the Odyssey, Odysseus requests that his men tie him to the ship's mast just so he can hear the siren'south vocal, despite knowing that the sirens' song is and so powerful that it can bulldoze men crazy, this is simply because our hero wants to be the only man live to boast that he'due south heard the siren's vocal and has managed to survive the run across. In O' Brother Where Art Grand it is Everett who addresses the three siren like women washing clothes abreast the river, he talks on the behalf of the group and accepts their alcohol. The women's song distracts the men and causes them to temporarily abandon their "quest" and being by the water, they are substantially lure them to a metaphorical watery grave. Although the characters in the Coen's pic have a better fate than Odysseus men, and luckily wake upward from their hypnotism to rapidly go back on their journeying.

Certain modest and supporting characters which appear throughout the film are similar to the characters featured in the Odyssey.  Homer (the bullheaded poet himself) makes an "appearance" as the blind radio human being who records the Soggy Bottom Boys song, "Homo of Constant Sorrow". Some other character to mention would be George "Baby Face" Nelson tin be seen as an interpretation of Hermes the Greek God of thieves. Infant Face Nelson was a famous banking company robber of the depression era, therefore a thief. Perhaps one of the most recognisable characters from the poem and the near memorable in the film is the Cyclops who is represented by the character of Big Dan Teague (John Goodman) who has ane eye, only like the Cyclops. In the verse form, Odysseus and his men are captured past the cyclops who wishes to swallow them. The hero escapes by blinding the cyclops which is a similar fate that occurs to Big Dan, and by disguising themselves as sheep. Ulysses, Pete and Delmar stop up dressing like members of the KKK in order to escape from Big Dan. Thankfully, our merry band of heroes manages to escape the evil clutches of the Klan and continue on their journey.

Both the Odyssey and O'Brother terminate in a similar fashion. Throughout the poem, Odysseus is driven past the need to become dwelling after discovering his wife is beingness forced to remarry. A group of 100 potential suitors take arrived at Odysseus abode, and are refusing to leave until Penelope picks a husband. In the case of O'Brother, the character of Vernon T. Waldrip (Ray McKinnon) is courting Penny (Holly Hunter) while Everett has been away. In order to confront his wife, Everett dresses equally a hobo, which is the same event that occurs in Odyssey. In the film, the men launch into "Man of Constant Sorrow", which gains Penny's attending and she watches as the entire audition rises to its feet and cheers, recognizing them equally the elusive Soggy Bottom Boys.

In the Odyssey, our hero decides to take on the challenge that Penelope has set out for the suitors in social club to win her hand: the man who can cord the bow and shoot it through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes office in the competition himself: he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot it through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. The difference between the texts is the amount of violence, in the poem Odysseus slaughters the suitors, just O'Brother doesn't evidence Everett slaughtering Vernon, which is probably a skillful thing equally the tone of the film would exist seriously effected by this act. Both the poem and the film ends happily, with the family unit of measurement being reconnected, and the main heroes take developed as an individual, and ultimately become a amend homo.

What makes O'Brother so practiced, is the fact that the Coen's take inspiration from the Odyssey but put their own spin on the tale, and create something which is unique but also is quite faithful to the original text. It is a great film which hopefully promotes the poem which it is based loosely upon, and brings it to a new generation. The Coen'south appreciation for the Greek myths and the films/stories that accept come before is what sets them apart from other filmmakers, and that's why I love them! So, I have reached the end of my essay, so I volition cease on i of my favourite quotes from the Odyseey "In that location is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep."

Author: Bianca Garner

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Source: https://filmotomy.com/o-brother-where-art-thou-a-coen-brothers-odyssey/

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