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Comparing Odyssey 'And O Brother Where Art Thou?'

699 Words3 Pages

Hunter Bryson
Mrs. Reedy
H English 9
2 December 2015
O Brother Where Art Thou and Odyssey
The Odyssey is an epic story on which many modern films are based off of, one of which being ‘O Brother Where Art Thou?’. The two main characters, Odysseus and Everett, go on a prolonged journey with many twists and turns in order to be reunited with their wives and family. On the way home, Everett must overcome perils such as the KKK, while Odysseus must deal with monsters such as Scylla. Throughout The Odyssey and ‘O Brother Where Art Thou?’ a group of friends follow the main characters until the end or until they die. Everett’s main companions are Pete and Delmer, while Philius and Eumaios are the main companions to Odysseus. The companions are similar in their loyalty to the hero and the shared lust of both parties to return their native land. The many connections between ‘O Brother Where Art Thou?’ and The Odyssey support that the movie is based on the epic poem. …show more content…

A blind railroad worker who is giving Everett a ride foresees a fortune in his future, correctly predicting what will happen just as Teiresias correctly predicts that Odysseus will be the only one in his crew to survive the long journey home. Characters do not have to be the only things that are similar, certain events from the two stories can also be similar. In ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ a thief named George Mason is electrocuted for his crimes; In The Odyssey, the crew of Odysseus steal cattle from Helios which results in the death of all the remaining crew except for Odysseus. These two events are similar because both incidences committed a crime that was unjust and they died for it. As George Mason is being taken to the electric chair, he is ‘talking to God’. Mason was talking to the Holy Trinity, which is comparable to how Athena was viewed by Odysseus in The

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Also in both stories the main character chooses the biggest sheep, with Odysseus choosing the largest ram and Everett choosing the color guard at the rally. Then in both of the stories the cyclops follows the protagonist not on sight but on smell and sound. In The Odyssey the men on the boat cheer for Odysseus, and the cyclops follows them based on that. In O Brother Where Art Thou, Big Dan hears them mess up the chant and then smells them by sniffing the air. In the end both monster had its own herd of sheep that followed them through everything blindly.

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