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Odyssey and O' Brother

            The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? has many parralels drawn from Homer's The Odyssey. The epic poem is a story of a journey home just as the movie is and both contain several stories evolving from the trips themselves. There are several aspects of the movie that are borrowed from Homer's classic tale.
             As the movie opens, Ulysses Everett McGill has just escaped from a prison chain gang in the Deep South with two buddies, Pete and Delmar. They want to make it across the state to dig up some treasure that George buried before he was caught. They only have four days to do it because after that the state will be flooding the valley in which the treasure is buried in order to create a man-made lake to support a new dam and their treasure will be at the bottom. Throughout the film the boys meet an array of interesting characters. The first is the elder blind man on the railroad when the men escaped from prison. The others are the three beautiful singing women at the river who seduce Pete, The bible salesman, Big Dan "T", the baptism group at the river, and Sheriff Cooley, the policemen with the sunglasses. .
             The elder blind man on the railway was referring to Tiresias. This mysterious character is in reference to Tiresias the blind prophet. The blind man told the group many odd things about their journey to come. He told Everett that he would not find the treasure he seeked. There was no way they could have found the treasure Ulysses told Pete and Delmar existed because it did not exist. He told the others that there was a hidden treasure that he seeked and they were damming a river. The treasure would be covered by this river if they didn"t get there in time. In the end of the movie, the treasure he seeked was his wife's wedding ring and he had to get there before the river flooded the area. He got the ring but it turned out to be the wrong one, so he never received the treasure he seeked.


Essays Related to Odyssey and O' Brother

1. o brother!

... draws parallels between Homer's "Odyssey" and the Coen Brother's "O Brother Where Art Thou?". In the year 2000, the inventive and provocative filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen reworked the Odyssey in a liberal way, changing scenes, settings and characters. The writer compares the original epic and the original screenplay and discusses dozens of small but meaningful comparisons. For instance, Odysseus and his men descend into Hades ... draws parallels between Homer's "Odyssey" and the Coen Brother's "O Brother Where Art Thou?". In the year 2000, the inventive and provocative filmmakers Joel ...

  • Word Count: 1578
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

2. comparison- odyssey/o brother

... wife because, against his will, Poseidon is keeping him away. Another similarity is between the blind prophet in O Brother and Tiresias in the Odyssey. His prophecy parallels to Odysseus" encounter with Tiresias in the underworld. They both mention homecomings and have references to cows. Tiresias and the blind prophet relate cows to the successful completion of their journeys. In homer's epic, not causing harm to ... bring Odysseus home safely. In the movie, cow just marks the end of the story when the sheriff can't chase after them anymore. Another similarity is that, in both the Odys...

  • Word Count: 581
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

3. The Odyssey and O Brother, Where art Thou?

... the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope with son, Telemachus, must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteresors, who are all competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. Many of the characters/scenes from the Odyssey and the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, correspond to each other with many similarities; yet, many of ... these characters have differences. Three specific characters are shown as parallels from The Odyssey: The Lotus Eaters, Odysseus' men, and the Sirens. In "O Brother Where Art Thou", the Baptism people are ...

  • Word Count: 967
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Odyssey

... paper compares the Odyssey to O" Brother Where Art Thou. Even though Homer's Odyssey was written in Greek times, the movie O"Brother Where Art Thou has many similarities. The Odyssey and O" Brother each start with an obstacle that keeps the main characters, Odysseus (Odyssey) and Everet (O"Brother), from their homes and their wives for many years. Odysseus is kept from home because he is fighting the war between Troy and Greece, and for Everet ... it's prison. When Odysseus escapes, from the war, and Everet escapes, from prison, they ... ...

  • Word Count: 471
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

5. O brother where art thou

... in the movie and the Odyssey are the Sirens , and the one eyed Cyclops. Other events which do not compare as strongly as the two events just mentioned include the prophesy by the blind soothsayer and the scene with "Baby face" George Nelson. Homer's Sirens are similar to the Sirens in the movie. In Homer's Sirens they bewitch him with a song and In O Brother Where Art ... a through beating, before squishing the horny toad that is supposedly Pete and then makes off with Ulysses" money and car. My last comparison and the most significant difference between the movie and the epic is the st...

  • Word Count: 548
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

6. "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

... ways. The main character in "O Brother, Where Art Thou,?" Ulysses Everett Mcgill, parallels Odysseus in The Odyssey. They parallel each other even by name. Ulysses is the Roman name for Odysseus. Everett is attempting to get back to his home in Ithaca, Mississippi which parallels Ithaca, Greece in The Odyssey. Everett's ex-wife Penny is getting married and Everett is trying to reach home ... to prevent the marriage. This is similar to Penelope about to be getting married in The Odyssey. When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, he successfully prevents the marriage analogous to Everett. Everett ...

  • Word Count: 305
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Brother where art thou

O BRO The sceme of "O" Brother, Where Art Thou?" and that of Homer's " Odyssey" are similar. A man worried that his wife might marry another man, while he is on a journey home to his wife and family. The film takes the story out of the ancient world and sets in old Mississippi during the Great Depression era. Many of the characters were adapted from The Odyssey; Sirens, a one-eyed ... . The main characters in the stories have the same name. The Odyssey the main character's name is Odysseus and in the film it is Ulysses. Ulysses is the translation of the Greek name Odysseus the hero of the odys...

  • Word Count: 1423
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Odyssey vs. O Brother....

The epic work of Homer entitled The Odyssey has transcended its ideals of individualism, jealously, religion, and the intrinsic and universal aspects of being human throughout time and has paved the way for an abundance of other movies and stories to embody the same nature as itself. In the year 2000, the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, was released as an adaptation of Homer's classic novel The ... Odyssey. Even though O Brother Where Art Thou is not a complete ... reincarnation of the original masterpiece, there are still a vast amount of similarities between the two works of art. Througho...

  • Word Count: 792
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Comparison of The Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou

The epic work of Homer entitled The Odyssey has transcended its ideals of individualism, jealously, religion, and the intrinsic and universal aspects of being human throughout time and has paved the way for an abundance of other movies and stories to embody the same nature as itself. In the year 2000, the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, was released as an adaptation of Homer's classic novel The ... Odyssey. Even though O Brother Where Art Thou is not a complete ... reincarnation of the original masterpiece, there are still a vast amount of similarities between the two works of art. Througho...

  • Word Count: 754
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

10. Gilgamesh and The Odyssey

... the deities aide the heroes during their times of tribulation, such was the case with Athena in The Odyssey. She was the goddess who went to her father, Zeus, and pleaded for Odysseus" return home. She continued to aide him throughout his journey. They also interpret dreams for ... were deities in both Gilgamesh and The Odyssey that seek to destroy the heroes; such was the case with Ishtar in Gilgamesh. For Gilgamesh's rejection of her, she casts the Bull of Heaven against him and ultimately was the reason his dear friend and brother, Enkidu, came to meet death ... . These deities threw...

  • Word Count: 675
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

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